During this pandemic the Government must not ignore the urgent need for pension reform. After protracted negotiations to form a new Government, urgent attention is now required to reform the pension system and protect the retirement security of future pensioners.

The underlying issues are clear: our population continues to age; the cost of providing State pension support is growing; and the participation rates and adequacy of private pension saving remain too low.

Experience shows that longer-term issues such as these are difficult for politicians to address while working in five-year electoral cycles. As it stands, the programme for government is vague in its commitments to pension reform.

The last government set an ambitious target of 2022 to deliver a new private pension saving system based on automatic enrolment – a key tool in addressing coverage and adequacy issues. While the programme reaffirmed a commitment to autoenrolment, the 2022 target is now highly unlikely to materialise and a new target has yet to be set.

Equally importantly, the new programme for government reaffirms the coalition’s commitment to the State pension, the bedrock of the Irish pension system. This will provide reassurance and greater certainty for responsible savers planning their retirement.

However, as the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council recently warned, some fundamental questions remain about the sustainability of the State pension, particularly in light of the new Government’s decision to defer planned increases to the State pension age.

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