Society welcomes formation of Pensions Council and Universal Retirement Savings Group

Pensions Council

The Society of Actuaries in Ireland welcomes the Tánaiste’s announcement of the membership of the Pensions Council. 

The Council’s function is to advise the Minister for Social Protection on matters of pensions policy.  Including Brendan Kennedy, Chief Executive of the Pensions Authority, the twelve-person Council includes five of the Society’s Fellow members – the others being Roma Burke, Tony Gilhawley, Sandra Rockett and Dr Shane Whelan – each of whom has a wealth of skills, knowledge and experience to offer. 

The Society is committed to contributing to debate on matters of public interest where an actuarial perspective can add value and we look forward to engaging with the Council in that context.  

Universal Retirement Savings Group

The Society also welcomes the Tánaiste’s confirmation of the Government’s decision to establish a Universal Retirement Savings Group to develop a roadmap and timeline for the introduction of a new supplementary workplace retirement saving scheme. 

The establishment of the Universal Retirement Savings Group will allow work to begin on the complex task of designing and implementing solutions that will go towards averting the much-publicised “pensions time bomb”. 

We also welcome the Tánaiste’s acknowledgement that, in order to successfully deliver a universal retirement saving scheme, there is a need to underpin this scheme with reform and simplification of the wider pensions landscape.  We consider the complexity of the pensions system to be a key impediment to employee and employer engagement on pensions planning, and that the complexity drives up the cost of private pension provision. 

Read the Tanaiste’s Announcement
 
Read the Society’s Press Release