The Minister for Social Protection commissioned the OECD to
report on the state of the Irish pension system in March 2012. In
April of this year a number of recommendations were made by the
OECD in order to deal with the perceived problems around increasing
life expectancy and the funding problems for the State pension and
private pension schemes.
To help solve the funding problems posed by increasing life
expectancy, the OECD suggested linking the retirement age with life
expectancy into the future. The absence of any debt on the employer
legislation and the priority given to pensioners on wind-up were
viewed as problems that needed to be addressed. Debt on the
employer legislation would impose a high priority debt on the
company, or other group companies, to pay the deficit in the
pension scheme and would put an end to the current situation where,
depending on scheme documentation, employers can walk away from
pension scheme deficits.
