What the model assumes about Ireland

This page collects every Ireland-specific number the model starts from: when the state pension begins and how it behaves, what healthcare and long-term care cost, what a retired household spends, and how tax is worked out. The planner prefills each of them, and you can change any of them during setup. Amounts are in EUR at today's prices, and the same data files drive the simulation itself, so a figure you read here is the figure your plan runs on.

The state pension

Starts at 66. The planner uses this both as your default retirement age and as the start age of your state pension.

Source: Citizens Information Board (2025). See it.

With inflation. Ireland's state pension has no automatic yearly increase written into law. The government decides any rise in each annual budget, and over the last fifteen years those rises have roughly kept pace with prices.

Source: Citizens Information Board (2026). See it.

What a surviving partner keeps: keeps the larger of the two pensions. Ireland pays either your own State Pension or the survivor's pension, whichever is higher, never both. The two full rates are the same, so a survivor already getting a full State Pension sees no increase.

Source: Citizens Information Board (2026). See it.

How the simulation pays and raises pensions: the income section of the technical reference. What changes at the first death: the couples section.

Healthcare

€2,367 a year for each person, at 65. Health spending outside long-term care: visits, medicines, glasses, dental work and any premiums you pay yourself. The planner starts from this figure and moves it as you age.

Source: Health Insurance Authority (Ireland) (2025). See it.

How the model ages this figure: the expenses section of the technical reference.

Long-term care

€51,050 a year out of your own pocket if you need residential care. You pay the full price until your savings run down far enough to qualify for help.

Source: Health Service Executive (HSE), Ireland (2025). See it.

The model does not add the whole charge on top of your budget: the groceries, and for renters the housing, that a care home replaces are credited back. How the care model works.

What a retired household spends

€976 + €261/mo for one person, €1,293 + €391/mo for a couple. Essential spending plus everything-else spending, each month, excluding housing and healthcare, which the planner asks about separately. The prefills come from MESL 2026 (Minimum Essential Standard of Living), Older Adult living alone / Older Couple, URBAN, Vincentian MESL Research Centre at SVP.

Source: MESL 2026 (Minimum Essential Standard of Living), Older Adult living alone / Older Couple, URBAN, Vincentian MESL Research Centre at SVP (2026). See it.

What each budget covers and how spending changes with age: the expenses section of the technical reference.

Tax

The model recalculates your tax bill for every simulated year, using Ireland's own scales, allowances and thresholds for the 2026 tax year, last read on 2026-07-27. The answers are checked against worked examples. Couples are assessed together where the rules allow it.

How Ireland taxes a retirement plan lists every figure, the tax office page each one came from, and everything the model does not do there.

Everything we read

Every publication behind the pension, care, healthcare and budget figures above. The tax page carries its own references, one per figure.