Ireland facing pension time bomb with people living longer and fewer workers to pay for them

The ESRI’s director Professor Martina Lawless is expected to tell the Budgetary Oversight Committee population ageing 'will be one of the defining economic and fiscal challenges facing Ireland over the coming decades'.

Ireland is facing an age-related time bomb with Government spending on supporting the country’s ageing population set to massively increase over the next 25 years.

Think tank the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) will tell the Oireachtas on Tuesday the level of old-age dependency — a ratio of those aged over-65 compared to the working-age population — is set to nearly double by 2050 as the labour force declines and those working now pass retirement age.