Fiscal Policy
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-09
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

The Deputy is correct. Future Forty does highlight that expenditure related to demographic ageing is expected to grow substantially in the coming decades. Healthcare, long-term care and pensions are expected to take up an increasingly larger amount of the Government's budget. Mitigation of the ageing costs will depend on improving efficiencies and ultimately boosting productivity in public services, including by integrating innovative medical technologies into our health system. Encouraging healthy living can help to keep costs manageable in the long run, too. Future Forty projects that climate costs will rise rapidly due to both Iong-run climatic changes and the increased frequency of extreme weather events. Although there is considerable uncertainty about the future cost of climate change, Ireland must prepare in advance to lower adaptation costs in the future. Additionally, I point to the cost of servicing our national debt. While this might appear relatively minor at present, Future Forty points to its becoming a growing burden if deficit and debt are used to cover rising costs elsewhere. Future Forty outlines hypothetical issues. Of course, there are also positive outcomes and opportunities. The decision on automatic enrolment, as the Deputy rightly said, is one whose immediate benefit people will not see in the short term, but they absolutely will see it in the future when they retire with better pensions.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:26+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-09