Northern Ireland’s voice is seldom heard in debates on how pensions work. Partly it’s down to the peculiar parliamentary presence they have (or don’t have), partly because it’s hard to integrate a part of the UK which is “overseas”.

But Northern Ireland is, for pensions, following the same path as the rest of the UK and I’m glad, not just that Nick Pearce is visiting it, but that he’s writing about it too.

If you are interested about how the Pensions Commission is going about its work, its priorities and the people who it finds authoritative on local pension issues, then I hope that Nick will carry on posting about the work he is doing.

While Jeannie Drake stole the headlines this week, we shouldn’t forget the Pensions Commission is doing this  work in the background. I hope that the Pensions Commission’s report will reflect the way that people go about preparing for retirement all over the United Kingdom ; that includes Northern Island as an equal partner