Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

The pension rights of scheme members are protected through trust law and by provision in the Pensions Act 1990, as amended.

The downturn in financial markets has had a significant impact on pension funding and posed major challenges for the trustees of pension schemes in restoring scheme funding. In response to the significant loss in scheme funding, a range of administrative and legislative measures were introduced to assist schemes recover their scheme funding. These measures were designed to ease the funding pressures on pension schemes and provide additional legislative support to secure the viability of a pension and, in the event of a wind-up of a scheme, to ensure that the assets of the scheme were distributed in a more equitable manner.

The Pensions Board provides advice and guidance to scheme administrators. However, trustees of pension schemes and employers are responsible for the affordability of the pension scheme and must take into account the costs of administering the scheme and the investment risks to ensure the protection of the members' benefits and secure the sustainability of the scheme in the long term.

The national pensions framework includes a range of measures to strengthen the regulatory system. These include the powers of the Pensions Board in regard to the regulation of pension schemes will be reviewed; regulation will be introduced to increase the transparency of pension charges; the funding standard will be kept under review; and the information being provided to scheme members will be kept under review and enhanced as considered necessary. The framework also sets out a possible approach to restructuring a pension scheme which might be considered by pension scheme trustees and employees.

A technical implementation group was established in May to develop the legislative, regulatory and administrative infrastructure required to put the reforms announced in the national pensions framework into operation.

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