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LEO VARADKAR IS planning to make “grasping the nettle” of reforming Ireland’s pension system a priority after the Budget.
However, the Minister for Social Protection said that introducing any kind of major change will be extremely difficult to implement.
Speaking at the Sunday Business Post pension summit in Dublin today, Varadkar said that most people are currently relying on the state pension to fund their retirement.
“Unless the overall pension system is reformed, its overall long-term adequacy and sustainability will be compromised,” he said.
“That’s why I am giving my support to the development of a new universal retirement savings system for people without supplementary retirement provision.”
The minister said that last year an interdepartmental group was set up to examine the issue of pension reform, which aims to “develop a system that provides universal coverage”.
Time for reform
He said that the group has focused on whether to develop a system that is mandatory or has an optional opt-out for all workers without supplementary retirement savings.
Varadkar did not give details as to how a new structure for pensions would work, although he said that any new scheme would be “supplementary to a state pension”.
He added that introducing any new system “will be very complex, involve numerous policy changes, a lot of legislation and administrative difficulties”.
“It will take a number of years to implement and will need to be phased in over a period of time,” he said.
“But of course none of none of these reasons are reasons not to start now, in fact I think there is probably no better time than now to grasp the nettle of pension reform.”
He added: “I understand why it couldn’t be done during the very difficult years of the recession while people were being hit left, right and centre with pay cuts and new taxes and new charges.
“We are now into a different period, provided the economy continues to recover, where people can reasonably expect payroll taxes to fall and wage increases to become the norm again. That presents an opportunity where we can get people to start saving.”
He said that once the Budget is passed in October one of his “absolute priorities” will be to establish “an agreement and consensus around a universal pension savings scheme”.
Plans
Varadkar has previously flagged his intent to overhaul Ireland’s pension system.
In July he launched a series of proposals aimed at simplifying and improving the pensions system, including introducing higher standards for pension trustees and cutting down on the number of pensions savings vehicles.
The suggestions, outlined by the Pensions Authority, will be finalised after a public consultation. Varadkar said that the government will be “guided” by the outcome of the consultation.
The minister has recently signalled that there could soon be major changes to the social welfare system, suggesting in July that welfare payments could be linked to inflation.
Last month his department sent a survey to 20,000 self-employed people asking what new benefits they would most like to receive from pay-related social insurance (PRSI) reforms planned in future budgets.
Written by Paul O’Donoghue and posted on Fora.ie
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Progress of a kind…. I guess.
A spectacular climbdown.
It’s a city wide Oxygen
@Ronan: sesh is on!
Needs more along the Quays. Also need to remember to empty them, bins they have are usually overflowing.
@Rob: actually people do be bringing their rubbish bags from home and putting them in the public bins. That’s why most dart stations and bus stop bins have special guards on them to stop people
Great for providing the list of toilets!
About time. 8 of us in there last week and we had to leave a lot of rubbish behind. This should allow us to dispose of out waste responsibly this week.
@Tom Thumb: why did you have to leave it behind? Why couldn’t you have taken it with you to dispose of somewhere else? Annoying maybe, but there is a choice
@Tom Thumb: it behind?
Whilst more bins are welcome, I worry they’ll be abused, people will dump household waste into them, I hope I’m wrong
@JC: Empty pizza boxes stunk and we were using our bottles for urination. I’m sure you wouldn’t want us weeing in a doorway like animals and a taxi driver doesn’t want that kind of stuff in his car. We figured since we were leaving that,we may as well leave all the rubbish we could have taken given it all had to be cleaned up anyway. Just common sense really.
@Tom Thumb: you didn’t have to leave it behind, you choose to litter there’s a difference.
Nothing stopped you from bringing with you to a bin you could use or bringing home.
@Barry Somers: Calm down Barry. I’ve literally explained why we couldn’t take a lot of it and for the rest, you’re just arguing with common sense. Why don’t you care about taxi drivers rights to a clean car? You need to have a look at yourself.
@Tom Thumb: where did u bring it from ? Why couldn’t you carry it back. ?
@Barbara Coleman: Well what do my posts say Barbara?
@Barbara Coleman: Seriously?!
@Tom Thumb: Common sense, what is that? In my lexicon, common sense is opinion based on perception, not evidence. So, its would also have been common sense to bring it home. You know, fold up the boxes, bend up the cans, that sort of higher thinking.
@Tom Thumb: You need something like this for peeing, it’s unisex and leakproof as well!
@Tom Thumb: ah you’re just fiiilthy. You could easily have brought bags to carry your rubbish home. You’d no problem carrying all your booze with you in the first place, had you?
@JustMeHere: Yeah OK Mother Teresa. Let’s see how strong your sense of civic duty is after 15 bottles of Corona and 2 cans of Fat Frog. And the lack of respect for Taxi drivers on here is shocking. One of the lads was so drunk he p*ssed on the seat, but you think that driver deserved his car stunk out with other rubbish. Give your head a wobble.
@Steve Monk:
I hope me not allowing cookies will stop the ads for that appearing everywhere for me now :O
@Tom Thumb: Ah, I get it now, Thomas. You just want to annoy people, by posting outrageous comments. Very good. And all done from your Mother’s converted attic space. Well, I suppose now that your on your school holidays, you have to find something to do.
@Tom Thumb: your unbelievable! Why didn’t you take it with you? Lots of other places to deposit your litter. So now other people that may have seen you do this, will now think it’s ok to leave our rubbish behind. Your a great example!!!
@Sean O’Doherty: Well Sean, considering you’re either A)on the Internet policing litering, or B)interacting with a school child you don’t know….maybe you need to find something to do yourself pal :)
@Tom Thumb: Why couldn’t you have taken it with you?
@Tom Thumb: all your actions are because you drank in excess. All your considerations are the continent for you. You can buy the paid refuse bags and leave them by a collection point such as bins and depots. The some consideration you have towards the taxi drivers, the cleaning crew and staff of recycling and wastage plants deserve, urine into bottles is disgusting and contaminated other stuff. The bottles with your urine need to be emptied and washed by a person. The only difference with the taxi drivers is you don’t see them and you don’t hear them.
Next time take home your bottles with your urine, empty them in the toilet (wastage waters system) wash them and take them to the recycling centre.
There is one thing at the top of some bottles that when you turn them magically the liquid inside of the bottle stay inside.
@Tom Thumb: You should bring your fishing rod with you next time you go to the canal, looks like you caught a good few here.
@Alan Byrne: I’ll second that. Well played
@Steve Monk: “This item cannot be shipped to your selected delivery location ….”.
@Maria Quinn: Jaysis Maria, remind me to appoint somebody as head of logistics the next time we have a few gargles in town. Because obviously,heavily regulated fun is the best kind of fun.
@Tom Thumb: I also police grammar and spelling, so you need to be on your guard. Litering, indeed!
@Tom Thumb: Won’t somebody please think of the poor, put upon taxi drivers! If Tom doesn’t think of their rights, who will stand up for them?
@Tom Thumb: well you have a pretty well elaborated excuses. When the only thing you need is to carry a bin bag in any of your pockets.
For logistics I would have contacted my refuse provider and asked for provision of extra services, a tag for ” Summer in the Outdoors” and designed collection points and an app or messaging to prevent excessive bin bags or waste their time when there is no bin bags …
@Sean O’Doherty: Well I’ve bad news Sean,you need to hand in your gun and badge. In your first reply to me you said “its would also have been common sense”, I don’t need to point out your mistake there. And in another reply you said “your Mother’s converted attic space” ,you don’t capitalise “Mother” when it follows a possessive pronoun. :)
@Tom Thumb: So because you decided to go to town have 15 bottles of corona 2 cans of fat frog you think It gives you the right to act like a slob. Don’t blame the council or others for you and your mates decision to have a piss up.
Ever think of those who have to come along and handle your bottles of wee because you and your mates couldn’t act like adults.
@Tom Thumb: I really feel for you. Absolutely nothing wrong with what you did. It’s not as if you dumped your ru bbish into the sea or someone’s front garden. I really can’t believe some of the comments directed at you. Some people are just absolutely insane.
Are we in the suburbs not included? Rathmines, Terenure, Crumlin, Walkinstown???? Have you seen Ballyfermot in the mornings? Absolutly disgusting from all the rubbish left from the local take-a-ways and empty plastic pint containers from the take-a-way pints from the pubs. I’m sure there are places over on the northside that also need extra bins and loos.
@Brian Kelly: the jurisdiction of Dublin CITY Council does not extend to the suburbs so as useless as they are, you can’t really blame DCC this time.
@Kevin Collins: good point Kevin. So it’s SDCC that should be providing the extras to the suburbs.
@Brian Kelly: the cheek of you! Ballier is lovely.
@Kevin Collins: literally all the areas he mentioned are looked after by DCC.
@Talkingsense 2.0: I stand corrected. I thought the canals marked the boundary between city centre and suburbs but google tells me otherwise. I retract my defence of DCC so!
@Paul Whitehead: not at 06:15 in the morning it’s not. When all the rubbish is getting pulled around by the seagulls and crows. Discarded cardboard box’s still with chips in them and pizzas.
No respect for your country.thank Goodness you don’t live in Scandinavia your get arrested .
I think if groups are going to partake in large public gatherings against advice given and drink on the streets which is against the law, I doubt if these people will go in search and then queue for a toilet.
@Murph11: what’s against the law?
BYOBR
Bring Your Own Bog Roll
I’m still baffeled why there are no public urinals on the streets like London, you get much worse smell then cockles walking around the streets of Dublin, thanks to lack of toilets.
I suppose it’s to be welcomed. It’s a change from a few years ago when they knocked the public toilets in Ballsbridge. The ones on Stephen’s Green are chained shut and I think the Luas now runs over the old ones on College St.
It’s a very easy situation to manage. The council only needs to do what other councils of other EU countries has been done …. hire people to monitor and control the number of people in parks and squares as well as an online booking app for certain outdoors facilities.
There’s plenty of people in PUPs so they will only gained through work their state pandemic subsidiaries
They had to be shamed into it. Its not DCC’s city its our city. There is nowhere to sit and enjoy a coffee/pint ffs. Like everything in this country the people come second.
@padar: if only people came 2nd, feels like society is well down the the list of “priorities”
No respect for your country.thank Goodness you don’t live in Scandinavia your get arrested .
@Charles Shelly: in Scandinavia I can assume they have proper outdoor amenities and places that you can go and enjoy a coffee, a pint or a glass of wine without having to stand up in an uncontrolled environment for hours and urinate down a lane like an animal.
oh s!!t toilets will be overflowing after two hours
At long last. Dublin is the only capital city I have been that public toilets are not provided all over city. Can you please include the parks too? It is a shame to go to the parks in Dublin and try to find a bush to relieve ourselves.
Thank the Gods
I don’t know what to make of this situation, on one hand DCC appear to be saying that if they were to go around providing bins and public toilets people would keep using them.
There are genuine people, brought up correctly, who want to clean up after themselves and who’d be disgusted at the idea of going to the toilet at the side of the street. Then there are the ‘entitled’, who believe they’re descend from animals, can’t get to grips with bins and have a right to s**the in the streets. Thoughts?
@Arch Angel: your right. They’re still going to ruin it for everyone else. How hard is it to bring you rubbish home
About time! No bins anywhere! Walking miles to find a toilet! What century are we in. Hygiene and health and safety! Stop being so scabby Ireland.
You can see all of the these new portaloo locations on the https://www.dublintoilets.ie/ location map.
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