Dublin - The Irish Association of Pension Funds has warned that some private pension funds would collapse during the current financial crisis unless action was taken to shore them up, national broadcaster RTE reported Thursday.

The association had sent proposals to the government on how to deal with the problem, association chairman Patrick Burke said at the start of its annual conference in Dublin.

One proposal was to allow people about to retire to put off buying annuities as costs had increased owing to the credit crisis. You purchase an annuity when you hand over a lump sum in return for a stream of income over a defined period until your death.

The minister responsible for pensions, Mary Hanafin, told RTE there was no evidence of any private funds being near collapse.

She said the government would have a long-term pensions strategy by the end of the year.

Ireland was the first EU member to enter recession this year after its economy shrank for two successive quarters.

The country's largest charity, the Society of St Vincent de Paul, said Thursday it would spend 50 million euros (70 million dollars) helping people in need in 2008.

St Vincent de Paul president Mairead Bushnell told RTE that calls to its Dublin offices for help - mostly from families with children - had increased by 40 per cent on the same time last year.

She said 1 million people out of an Irish population of 4.3 million lived in poverty or were on the brink of poverty. (dpa)