IRELAND: Senior Citizen Appointed to Pensions Board

DUBLIN, Ireland (Irish Senior Citizens Parliament), August 8, 2008: The first senior citizen has been appointed to the Pensions Board by the Minister for Social affairs, Community and Family Affairs. Michael O’Halloran, who was appointed to the board by Dermot Ahern last week, has stressed his concern at the inadequacy of pension provisioning in Ireland. “Many people do not have a pension plan at all or, if they do, it is miniscule,” he said. “The problem I have with PRSAs (personal retirement savings accounts) is that they’re not compulsory. If they are to effect, they need to be actively promoted,” he said. O’Halloran, who is 66, is chief executive of the Irish Senior Citizen’s Parliament. He has extensive experience in the operation of pension schemes from his time with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, with which he worked as a trainer on the impact of Pensions Act 1990, particularly with regard to the duties of pension trustees. “Everything that is done by older people to improve pensions will benefit younger people. They too will be pensioners one day,” Said O’Halloran. Making the appointment Ahern condemned the image of old age which is sometimes portrayed as a burden on the younger generation. “The truest test of character is how prosperous Ireland is but how we use that prosperity to guarantee a decent quality of life for all our people , especially older people who built this country,” he said. Donnelly said a pensioner who is actively, as opposed to passively, retired can bring a wealth of knowledge to the whole area of pensions planning. Source: http://iscp.wordpress.com