These include a considerable restructuring of contribution or benefit rules, increasing the effective retirement age and linking pension benefits in an actuarially fair way to life expectancy. In some cases, where these types of reforms have proved to be insufficient, more systemic reforms have been adopted, changing the financing structure of pension provision with increased reliance upon funded pension arrangements.
In the Irish case, the flat rate structure of the basic state pension, together with our current relatively favorable demographic structure, has so far resulted in a much smaller fiscal burden from age-related expenditure. Nevertheless, on the basis of current policies, agerelated public expenditure in Ireland is set to increase significantly in the decades ahead.