Oireachtas Committee comments on auto-enrolment bill

Brendan Burgess

Brendan Burgess

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Teens as young as 16 should start paying pension automatically, committee advises

Government plans to put auto-enrolment pension scheme in place to help diffuse pensions time bomb
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Teens as young as 16 should start paying pension automatically, committee advises​

Government plans to put auto-enrolment pension scheme in place to help diffuse pensions time bomb​


That time bomb will go off if they try to diffuse it instead of defusing it.

Brendan
 
I dislike intensely the talk of requiring mandatory investment by the pension funds into certain areas (e.g. Irish bonds, renewable energy). There will be far too much temptation for future politicians to dip into the funds and redirect them as they see fit, and a change of government could suddenly see your fund forced to invest in something you have no control over. To maintain confidence in these funds I think they should be "hands off" for politicians, and simply invested in a basket of global equities and other assets.
 
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Kilkenny06 said:
I dislike intensely the talk of requiring mandatory investment by the pension funds into certain areas (e.g. Irish bonds, renewable energy). There will be far too much temptation for future politicians to dip into the funds and redirect them as they see fit, and a change of government could suddenly see your fund forced to invest in something you have no control over. To maintain confidence in these funds I think they should be "hands off" for politicians, and simply invested in a basket of global equities and other assets.
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I agree wholeheartedly. Those in charge of the auto-enrolment scheme need to decide what the objective is: -

  • To force workers into investing in projects deemed worthy or patriotic by the powers that be or
  • To strive to obtain the best return for the investors' money using best practices in the industry
As a concession, perhaps there could be an "Irish solidarity fund" (to borrow from the NTMA's marketing manual) which invests in Irish equities and bonds as an option, but not an obligation.
 
Any requirement to invest in Irish assets will surely fall foul of EU rules.
More problematic are:
Thou shalt not invest in the arms industry
Thou shalt not invest in fossel fuels
Thou shalt invest in renewable energy
All very commendable I'm sure but rules out any ETF or similar fund that matches an all industry index
And I presume this virtue signalling will not be confined to the man and woman on auto enrolment but will be extended also to the fat cats with their pensions.
 
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