Pension funds have suffered greater losses in Ireland than in any other EU country because of a "cultural over-reliance" on investing them in stocks, shares and properties.

The National Pensions Board said yesterday that up to 90% of private pensions are under-funded and are considerably worse than most other countries as a result of the financial crisis and economic downturn.

Chief Executive, Brendan Kennedy, also told a Dáil committee yesterday they are unlikely to achieve the target to have 70% of 30 to 65-year-olds signed up to a pension by 2015.

He told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which monitors state spending, that pensions "have experienced significant difficulties of late" with sharp drops in the value of defined contribution schemes and defined benefit schemes.

"In both cases, a significant factor has been the tendency for pension schemes in this country to invest a relatively high proportion of their assets in equities compared with other European countries."

"While this approach worked well for a long time as equity markets performed strongly it inevitably contributed to losses once the equity markets turned. The basic problem is that this approach did not take adequate account of investment risk and downsides."

Irish pension funds lost over a third of their value last year, at least 20% more than the EU average and 8% more than the second worst performing country.