There is no way for Ireland to avoid the demographic disaster afflicting the likes of Japan and Italy, according to Tánaiste & Minister for Finance Simon Harris TD. He offers no solutions.

In a speech to the ESRI yesterday, Mr Harris said: “In this highly uncertain world, our demographic outlook is clear. From the middle of the next decade, we will begin to age rapidly. By 2050, just 24 years away, Ireland will look a lot like Italy or Japan does today.

“In such a society, growth will be lower, costs will be higher and the burden on taxpayers – our children – will be immense”.

He concluded: “There is no way of avoiding that fate.”

His policy response is to run economic surpluses and invest in a sovereign wealth fund.

However, Government spending via the National Development Fund, he said, “won’t be enough”.

In addition, there was an “economic necessity” to improve institutional childcare as, he said, the lack of women in the workforce was limiting the economy. This is despite a huge majority voting in favour of keeping the mother-in-the-home provision in the Constitution in a referendum two years ago.

The CSO projects that by 2057, around 30pc of the population will be over 65, double the 2022 figure.

Ireland’s birth rate is 1.5, well below the 2.1 replacement level.