Pensions gap to hit future retirees

Ireland faces a yawning chasm in financing its public pensions of up to 10% of the country’s economic output by 2060, according to a report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

In a review of the outlook for pensions in its 34 member countries, the OECD said workers will have to work longer before retiring and will have smaller public pensions. It described today’s retirees as living in a golden age for pensioners that may not be sustainable.

“It may not feel like it, but today’s retirees are living through what might prove to have been a golden age for pensions and pensioners. Far fewer older people live in poverty than in the past: about a quarter fewer than in the mid-1980s. They also can expect to live longer. Today’s and tomorrow’s workers, in contrast, will have to work longer before retiring and have smaller public pensions,” the report said.