Ireland will eventually have one of the highest state pension ages in the world. The government has recently released their “The Roadmap for Pension Reform” scheme, which is aimed at finding ways to keep more money from the public.
The state pension age is currently 66 and this will rise to 67 in 2021 and then 68 in 2028. The state pension age will be reviewed every five years subsequently. The most noted part about this change however, is that the state pension age for government ministers and TD’s is capped at 65.
The new age limits do not consider Ireland’s current life expectancy, which is 81, higher than most but this is not expected to increase and may even decrease in time with the growing prevalence of obesity and cancer.
Ireland, like most Western countries, is also experiencing a slow demographic disaster as birth rates continue to plummet meaning our population is getting older and this will increase pressure on the pension fund and other publicly financed services.
The government has not proposed any solutions to this dearth in births and some commentators have pointed out that the governments recently successful drive to legalise abortion on demand in Ireland is somewhat counter-productive to solving this nation ending crisis.