The figures were released on Wednesday morning.

Research has found that Ireland has a significant gender pension gap, with retired women getting an average of  €153 less a week in pensions than men. A new report from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has found that men get €433 on average per week, while women receive just €280 per week. This means that over the course of a year, retired women receive on average almost €8,000 less than men. Acording to the ERSI, the gender pay gap is largely due to differences in incomes from private and occupational pensions. 55 per cent of retired men receive a private or occupational pension, compared to only 28 per cent of women. For these types of pensions, research shows that lower relative years of work experience among women also increases the gap. The study shows a significant difference in the number of years worked by men and women. 93 per cent of retired men had worked for more than 30 years, compared to 33 per cent of retired women. Meanwhile, 3 per cent of retired men had never worked, compared to 22 per cent of retired women. The report also found that there was no gender difference in income poverty. However, women are less likely to receive a contributory pension and among those who do, the average income received is much lower than the average income received by men.