Not content with “borrowing” €17.5 billion from the state pension reserve fund, Ireland’s government is back once again to stick their fingers into people’s pension pots (pdf file) :

Pension Levy
The various tax reduction and additional expenditure measures which I am announcing today will be funded by way of a temporary levy on funded pension schemes and personal pension plans. I propose that the levy will apply at a rate of 0.6% to the capital value of assets under management in pension funds established in the State.

It will apply for a period of 4 years commencing this year and is intended to raise about €470 million in each of those years. The levy will not apply to pension funds established here and providing services and benefits solely to non-resident employers and members. Further details regarding the proposed application of the levy are set out in the Summary of Initiative Measures.

I am conscious of the concerns of the pensions industry about the impact of a levy in circumstances where the pensions sector, in common with other sectors in our economy and society, is finding the current economic and financial environment very challenging. However, the imposition of the levy is for a relatively short period and its purpose is to improve that environment by providing the means to encourage job creation in areas of our economy most likely to deliver that employment quickly.

I am sure people will not mind having their retirement savings pinched as it’s for a good cause and only “for a short period of time”.

Or, more likely, like hell it will.

As a commentor at Zerohedge wrote :

“the imposition of the levy is for a relatively short period”

LOL.  That’s right, and I’ll only stick it in a little ways — just the pink part.  So be a good lad and grab your ankles . . .