This would take a look at your overall financial circumstances, but there is one argument in favour of putting money into the pension. From age 65, the Income Tax exemption threshold is €18,000 per year for a single person or €36,000 per year for a married couple where one spouse is over 65. If your circumstances are that you'll be tax exempt from age 65, you could put contributions into the pension now, claim 20% tax relief on them and extract them without tax in retirement. But your own circumstances may render this inadvisable.