Pensions in Ireland: The Perspectives of Irish Citizens
Against the backdrop of population ageing, which has been identified as a major societal challenge for all Western nations, successive Irish Government reports have reflected on the difficulty of sustaining the costs of the public State pension. The need for pension reform in Ireland continues to give rise to much public debate. Recasting pensions however is always a protracted and politically complex process, involving a range of relevant and influential social, economic and political actors at national and supernational level. However the voice of the people who are directly affected by these reforms has been largely absent from the discussions and debates in the pension reform process. This study, as part of a larger H2020 funded project entitled FairTax, which examined how fair and sustainable taxation and social policy reforms can increase economic sustainability in EU member States, brings the voices of ordinary citizens to the fore and aligns with the EU ambition that European citizens participate in a meaningful way in policy development.