If you were to retire tomorrow at age 65, you would most probably qualify for a state pension of £106 (#134.69) per week, a sum just less than one-third of the average industrial wage. At today's rates, the same amount could equally be defined as the price of a luxury dinner for two in a top-class restaurant, a cheap return flight to Britain, or the contents of many women's make-up bags - all things that are regarded by many consumers as justifiable luxuries, or little treats that make life more pleasurable.

Imagine, however, living your entire life out of that £106. Treats aside, would it cover the basics that make life bearable: shelter, nourishment and clothing? What about covering them in the manner to which you have become accustomed? How exactly were you planning to pay for that luxury cruise and summer house in the west? Retirement dreams are invariably expensive.

Scraping by on £106 every week is the situation in which more than half of the Republic's working population will find themselves upon retirement, according to a recent Ark Life survey, which showed that 52 per cent of workers did not have a pension plan.

The same survey revealed that 34 per cent of the working population thought that the state should be responsible for their pensions, while 47 per cent reckoned that they would need 80 per cent of their current income to live comfortably upon retirement. The State's £106.00 per week would only meet that requirement if pre-pension income was £132.50 or less. There's going to be a shortfall somewhere, no matter how you look at it.

Adding to this potential shortfall is the shared dream of early retirement. Many workers have notions of retiring not at 65, but five or perhaps 10 years earlier. At age 55 or 60, these "baby- pensioners" will not only be some years off qualifying for a State pension, but will also be facing into an average of 15 or 20 years without a monthly or weekly pay cheque.

The Ark Life survey also showed that 28 per cent of people in the Republic fancy would like to retire at 60, but less than half of those surveyed subscribe to any pension plan, it's unclear how they intend to achieve this goal.

It's only natural that people who want to quit the rat race before their State pension kicks in will have a harder time providing for their retirement than those who stay at work longer. Just how much more difficult it could be is a mystery to many, but there's no doubt that the numbers make harsh reading. An illustration from the Irish Pensions Trust with industry-standard terms reveals that a male who hopes to retire at 60 needs to start investing 10 per cent of his salary at age 25 to realise a pension of just 48 per cent of his income when he leaves work.

When the starting date slips to age 35, that pension becomes less than one-third of the previous income. Beginning contributions at 40 will net the same male a pension of just 23 per cent of his income at 60.

The numbers differ depending on who provides them but the basic idea is the same: early retirement requires considerable planning and investment. The earlier you want to go, the more you need to sacrifice to the cause when you are young. It's also worth bearing in mind that most Irish pension funds are geared towards members retiring aged 65, so considerable losses are incurred by leaving the fund earlier.

"There's very definitely a technical aspect to any desire to retire early," says Quentin Teggin, head of marketing at Lifetime Assurance. "Under Revenue rules, personal pensions won't allow it, unless there's ill-health. Company schemes, maybe, but for executive pension schemes, there are also revenue rules. It's very important if you're thinking of retiring early to get into the details."

Even staying at the coalface until the accepted retirement age of 65 won't greatly help the imaginary 40-year-old above: the eventual pension will still only kick in at approximately one-third of his salary. In short, funding that idyllic early retirement gets harder the longer a person leaves it to start a pension plan.

Once you get into your thirties, the cost of a pension starts to rocket, says Mr Eamon Donnelly of the Retirement Planning Council, who reckons a 35-year- old who wants to leave work at 60 needs to be putting away around £550 every month in order to reach a £10,000 per year pension. Mr Donnelly believes that such financial constraints will, when combined with demographic issues, soon turn early retirement into an outdated concept.

"Nobody should be looking at retiring at 65; they should be looking at a change of lifestyle," says Mr Donnelly. "You've got to look for another job."

And so, according to Mr Donnelly, Irish workers who are currently in their thirties could arguably be facing into another 40 years of work rather than fewer than 30. Putting a positive spin on the prospect, Mr Donnelly suggests that a career change at 65 could be just the thing to increase a retiree's quality of life. He says that older people will get the chance to pursue the career they've always wondered about while supplementing their retirement income.

But this optimistic approach will obviously not apply to all. Not everyone retains good health until retirement, never mind after it, and not everyone relishes the notion of working until 75.

By not investing in a pension in their younger days, Irish workers are effectively gambling on their future. By not investing early, they're undoubtedly gambling on their future comfort.