Shedding light on pension raid

Unlike the difficulties Cyprus encountered when trying to levy bank deposits, our Government’s raid on pension funds here was carried out almost without incident, writes Joe Brennan

FOR countries contemplating future bailouts, Ireland may offer a quieter way to raid savings than Cyprus by going after pensions rather than deposits.

The Government is raising €1.9bn through an emergency 0.6% annual charge on domestic pension funds introduced in 2011 and running through Jun 2014.