The Pensions Board Andrew Nugent Assistant Head of Information Services The Pensions Board

Established by the Pensions Act, 1990 Main functions are set out in the Act and include –to monitor and supervise the operation of the Act and pension developments generally Promoting pensions development, information and awareness is an associated support function. Board conducts the National Pensions Awareness Campaign (NPAC) on behalf of Government as recommended in the “Securing Retirement Income” report of the National Pensions Policy Initiative published in 1998 Board also has a policy role

T HE P ENSIONS A CTS  Part I – Preliminary and General  Part II – Establishment of Pensions Board  Part III – Preservation of Benefits  Part IV – Funding Standard  Part V – Disclosure of Information  Part VI – Trustees of Schemes * 1 Part VIA – Registered Administrators * 2 Part VII – Equal Treatment * 1 Introduced by the Social Welfare and Pensions Act,2008 * 2 Equal Pension Treatment introduced by Social Welfare(Miscellaneous Provisions) Act,

T HE P ENSIONS A CTS, * 3 Part VIII– Compulsory and Voluntary Reporting * 3 Part IX – Miscellaneous Applications to the High Court * 3 Introduced by the Pensions (Amendment) Act, 1996 * 4 Part X – Personal Retirement Savings Accounts (PRSA’s) * 4 Part XI – Pensions Ombudsman * 5 Part XII – Cross Border Schemes * 4 Introduced by the Pensions (Amendment) Act,2002 * 5 Introduced by the Social Welfare and Pensions Act,2005  Social Welfare Law Reform and Pensions Act, 2006  Social Welfare and Pensions Act, 2007  Social Welfare and Pensions Act,

The Pensions Board Focus Three key operational areas: Supervision, regulation and enforcement Policy, legal and actuarial Information and awareness

 Company Pension Scheme (99,802 schemes with 800,398 members) (66% DB schemes and 34% DC schemes)  Personal Retirement Savings Accounts (PRSAs) (Over 140,000 PRSAs with asset value of €1.24 billion- June 2008) (86,613 employers had signed up with a PRSA provider )  Personal Pension Plans and Retirement Annuity Contracts (RACs) (In excess of 200,000 contracts – Irish Insurance Federation)  Fund assets estimated between €60 to €90 billion  Voluntary regime for supplementary pension provision Types of Irish Private Pensions

Regulation/Compliance (1) Regulation is underpinned by Pensions Acts and Supervised by Pensions Board Main Areas of Regulatory Activity are:  Scheme Registration  Scheme Investigations  Monitoring of Funding Standard  Cross-Border Schemes  Monitoring of Disclosure of Information Compliance  Prosecutions  Fines (recently introduced) 8

Regulation/Compliance (2) Pensions Board taking tough approach for breaches of the Pensions Act Board recently obtained a High Court judgement against an Irish company for €186,000 in pension arrears On the spot fines regime in place since September Fine for each offence €2,000 Introduction of Registered Administrators since

Trustees Main Duties In broad terms, trustees’ main duties under the Act are: to ensure contributions are received to ensure contributions are remitted to invest the funds to pay the benefits to ensure that Funding Standard is met to keep records and accounts to preserve or transfer benefits to disclose information to ensure equal pensions treatment to apply the resources of the scheme on wind up to register the scheme with the Board

Board’s Powers Section 18 Authorisation – furnishing of information Section 58 Prosecution for non-remittance of deductions within 21 days Section 87 High Court order to have company pay ‘unpaid’ contributions to scheme 11

Where will your income come from when you retire? The current state social welfare pension is € per week (or € 11,976 per year) Will this be enough to meet all your needs in retirement? Almost 80% say no!

Changing demographics No’s at Work 2,000,1002,268,0002,125,000 Aged over ,000844,0001,532,000 No’s at work per person over

Current policy issues Green Paper on Pensions published in October 2007, followed by consultation phase which is now completed Commission on Taxation to consider how best the tax system can encourage long term savings to meet the needs of retirement Pensions also a commitment in Programme for Government Recent social partnership agreement which includes a commitment to produce legislation on the transfer of undertakings 14