Pensions: Irish Life CEO's address to Minister Joan Burton and Media Reaction

In a strongly worded address, Irish Life’s CEO, Gerry Hassett, put forward the industry case for Pensions to the Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton TD.

Key points from Gerry’s keynote address :

§         The pension’s community is already playing its part and contributing its share of the €15b national recovery programme. Even excluding the pension levy which has been suggested as an alternative to tax relief, the Govt is already 90% of their way toward their target (ref Milliman report conducted recently) for 2011 and 2012.

§         Providing incentives for middle income workers to fund for their retirement is a noble cause and represents good policy – 90% of the people who avail of this incentive earn €70,000 or less.  Reducing tax relief will hit these middle income workers disproportionately.

§         Irish Life’s survey found that 70% of adults believe the Govt is NOT actively trying to encourage people to save for retirement.  Irish Life is calling for the Govt to give clarity that it will continue to support people planning for their retirement and remove the current uncertainty.

§         Irish Life is calling for equity between the private and the public sector. Funding the average public servant’s pension costs 5 times the amount that the average private sector worker has saved for their retirement (DC scheme).

For all of us in this industry, it is vital the Government brings clarity on pension policy and we’ll continue pressing for a commitment to retaining tax reliefs going forward.  Our hope is that yesterday’s conference contributed to that debate.