A model of pensions for women in Ireland

1. A model of pensions for women in Ireland Presentation to Irish Women Lawyers Association. Rachel Doyle NWCI Head Outreach, July 2009.

3. Current Irish System- Facts • Older population stable at 11% of total • 2/3 of Older people receive State pension • Women half as likely to have pension as men • Total pensions expenditure stable as % of GNP (2.1%) • Pensioner poverty now 16%

4. Issues Adequacy Structure Equity Sustainability Individualisation Governance Current Reality Low state pension Voluntary 2nd tier Retain tax reliefs Looming crisis Not a central issue No discussion Reform issues for Irish System

5. Principles of Feminist Pension Reform • Economic autonomy, direct pension rights. • Labour Market Equality - addresses cumulative labour market inequality. • Facilitating atypical work, - fully inclusive • Ethic of Care • Equal sharing of care obligations. • Retrospective pensions justice.

6. Pension principles – continued • Adequacy – for a decent quality of life • Simplicity, transparency, information • Allowing for some provision for income replacement

7. Pension principles – equally important • Enable flexible mobile lifestyles consistent with high levels of migration • Enable diversity and inclusion of family formation • Respect life style choices in relation to old age • Sustainable

8. Model

9. Proposed three tier model • The critical decision is the relative importance in the pension system of an adequate first-tier state pension. • A second-tier pension should take the form of a state earnings related pension that builds on the existing, widely accepted social insurance system • Third tier –voluntary pensions system with very limited tax incentivised savings and development of more equitable progressive savings incentives

10. First Tier A Comprehensive Guarantee • Make adequacy and individual entitlement the immediate, core function of first tier pensions • Adequate universal pension for all over 66 and resident in Ireland • Immediate pension justice and direct rights • Simple, transparent, equitable, comprehensive • Equality and ethic of care • Sustainability - switch tax expenditures into first tier, increase women’s labour market participation, choice of retirement age etc

11. 2nd Tier social insurance contributory pensions • Ensuring maximum eligibility • Ensure benefit calculations advantage women (gender impact assessment) • Maximise access by enabling easy re-entry after periods of disruption; • enable relatives assisting, including spouses of self-employed and farmers, to be insured • Transforming homemakers’ disregards into credits and awarding these retrospectively from 1973.

12. 2nd Tier social insurance contributory pensions • Introducing gender neutral paid parental leave benefit for parents of young children • Once-off, ring fenced retrospective scheme • Once adequacy in the first tier guaranteed introduce an income replacement function into SI

13. “My long search for security in my later years has left me frustrated with the social welfare system. I feel unvalued by the state for all the years I’ve given to caring , we were unpaid workers who took care of parents. We saved the state a lot of money” (Mary)

14. “ I am now seventy years of age and have received nothing from the state even though I have contributed to society by rearing the future generation”. (Catherine)

15. “ I am a person in my own right and I would like to be as independent as possible” (Cecilia)