Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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Question 290: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will consider introducing a requirement on pension fund managers to disclose their fees on a continual basis in order to encourage competition and cut costs. [15847/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Government supports and encourages people to make provision for an adequate income in retirement. It does this through the provision of a State pension (contributory) which is currently 33% approx. of the gross average industrial earnings and through generous tax relief on supplementary pension savings.

It is important that an individual's pension savings is invested wisely and that charges incurred in the administration of a pension scheme are minimised. The Government recognises the difficulty that people can have in understanding the various charges that can arise and how these charges are applied. In this regard, I have requested the Implementation Group for the National Pensions Framework to examine options to bring simplification and transparency to the issue of pension charges. This group is chaired by my Department and includes a number of officials from the Department of Finance, the Revenue Commissioners, the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, and the Pensions Board. Following the outcome of this work, I will bring forward regulations to increase the transparency of pension charges, if appropriate.