Irish Examiner view: No simple answer to pensions dilemma

The demographics of the Irish population make our existing pension position unsustainable with the ratio of active workers per pensioner in the population due to fall from its existing 4.5:1 to 2:1 in 2050.

One-third of Irish workers do not have any supplementary income beyond retirement other than the State pension.

One of the consequences of the decision by major central banks to print money during the Covid-19 pandemic — quantitative easing, they like to call it — is that it has persuaded people that there is an inexhaustible supply of it.

Barely a debate takes place in the Dáil, barely an idea is tabled in the public square, or floated over the network, without a price tag attached. And yet society’s finances are finite, and the main source of them, taxes paid by workers and businesses, are under pressure from an increasing range of demands, often domestic, but many beyond our control.