New campaign to promote pensions in farm sector

Low levels of pensions provision in the agricultural sector, especially among women, is the focus of a new campaign by the Pensions Board, which is staffing a stand at this week's Ploughing Championships.

Officials from the board, which is the statutory body for regulating and promoting pensions, travelled to Mogeely, Co Cork, yesterday to distribute information guides on pensions to visitors to the three-day event.

Figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that the number of people with private pension provision drops significantly outside urban areas.

Research published by the CSO last September shows that 52.4 per cent of workers between the ages of 20 and 69 have some form of private pension and will not have to rely solely on State pensions in retirement. But in some rural areas this coverage rate falls to 45 per cent.

The gap in pensions coverage between urban and rural areas can be partly attributed to higher levels of part-time, seasonal and contract working patterns in rural areas, according to Mary Hutch, head of information and training for the Pensions Board.

A high level of employment dependency on hospitality, retail and farming sectors, where employers are traditionally more unlikely to offer pensions to staff, is also to blame.

CSO figures show that 53.2 per cent of women are not covered by a private pension, compared to 43.7 per cent of men.