Govt seeks flexible retirement age to tackle pensions crisis

The Government has asked the Pensions Board to consider introducing more flexibility in the retirement age, according to Social and Family Affairs Minister Seamus Brennan.

Speaking at the launch of National Pensions Action Week, Mr Brennan said he had asked the board to consider allowing people to work beyond the age of 65 if they wanted to boost their private pensions.

The move is being suggested in response to growing concern that hundreds of thousands of Irish people do not have private pensions and that the state pension will not be adequate to meet these people's needs.

Around 900,000 Irish people have no private pension and Mr Brennan said he was particularly concerned about figures showing that only one-third of female workers in the private sector had pension coverage.