EU pensions agreements

I'm living and working in Ireland but planning retirement. Up until 2009 I was living and working in the UK. Lots of recent changes to pensions rules in both countries, and I'm getting befuddled. And in every aspect in both countries I appear to have been born one year too late...
Does anyone have experience of the practice of combining pension contributions from two different EU countries to maximise pension entitlement? The contributary state pension here is better than I would get in the UK, but I'm not sure I understand the rules well enough to make a decision. And presume that it would be an "either/or" pension i.e. if my UK contributions are taken into account towards the Irish pension I get zilch UK pension.

Re: EU pensions agreements

I would suggest that you get yourself an IFA Ania as the whole pension issue is a bit of a minefield. I am also retirement planning at the moment but luckily my company pays an IFA to give us free advice and we are very lucky in that regard. Good luck with your planning. When are you thinking about retiring, soon ?

Re: EU pensions agreements

Not using an IFA for questions that the local pensions office can answer. Most stuff is sorted already, it's just a question of UK/Irish state pension entitlements.
Was planning to retire in two years, but since recent changes in pensions rules here I may go next year. The benefits of staying on an extra year have just been removed by the new pension rules.