A recent nationwide survey commissioned by the Irish Association of Pension Funds (IAPF) and conducted by IReach on 1000 people nationwide, revealed that 77% of respondents believe they are not saving enough for a reasonable standard of living in retirement – with 23% saying they are not saving anything at all.
 
The IAPF survey revealed that men and women have pretty much the same opinions when it comes to whether or not they are saving enough for retirement. However, people in different age brackets seem to vary in opinion.
 
Speaking at IAPF’s Annual Defined Contribution Conference this morning at The Printworks, Dublin Castle, Jerry Moriarty, CEO of the IAPF said, "What we believe to be the most revealing element of the survey is that 70% of people say that they would be in favour of the Government introducing a type of mandatory pension scheme to encourage more people to save for their retirement. So in fact, the Irish public do recognise that there is insufficient retirement planning taking place, and they are cognisant of the fact that something more drastic than just encouraging people to save into a pension may need to be done.

The percentage support for the Government’s plan is even higher amongst older people (55+) at 80% - many of these respondents are already retired and so have a better understanding of exactly how much people in retirement need to live on.

The only way in which we can tackle the pension crisis is by engaging with the people that are most affected – those workers with little or no pension provision. Ultimately, we need “buy-in” from this group. So it bodes well for the Government’s plans to introduce some form of compulsory pension scheme that the majority are open to this initiative." 

Source: www.businessworld.ie