Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

My advice is that it will affect few, if any, pension schemes in Ireland that function in the manner described in Article 17 of the directive. It is a particular structure of pension scheme or trust retirement annuity contract and it has nothing to do with the sponsoring employer. It is where they underwrite death or disability benefits - known in the insurance industry as biometric risks - or guarantee a given investment performance or a given level of benefits. We do not have that type of structure in Ireland, so it is unlikely that it will have any effect on existing Irish schemes.

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