Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am a great fan of the campaign for plain English or indeed plain Irish. I am afraid, as the Deputy has mentioned, sometimes it is not only like looking into a bush, but like looking into a thicket, trying to make out the meaning of a pension statement. The Deputy is correct in pointing out that the people in the pensions industry earn very handsome rewards for the work they do.

The standard annual trustee report must show the: benefits payable at normal retirement age, assuming one stayed to this age, based on present salary and how benefits are calculated; benefits payable at normal retirement age, assuming one left service at the stated date and the method of calculation; how contributions are calculated; contributions paid to date and the amounts of any transfers received; and information on benefits from AVCs or funds transferred from another pension scheme or PRSA. Those requirements already exist and I do not believe we need additional legal provision for it. Lawyers would probably argue that this language is clear and people should be told everything. I sometimes think that much of this information would be better in something like an info-graph because it is very complex. There are further pages of notes which are even more impenetrable. Often the most important things are in the notes.

I hope that with the development of the governance structures on pensions in Ireland having the reports we had that we will be moving to this. However, I do not believe it needs to be incorporated in legislation because the requirements for the information already exist. We will certainly be encouraging the campaign for plain English, but that is a tough one to crack in pensions.