Eric Byrne (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 225: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the reciprocal pension agreements that exist between Ireland and Bulgaria. [25643/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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There are no bilateral agreements in relation to pensions operating between Ireland and Bulgaria. However, EU regulations on the coordination of social security systems, and Directive 2003/41/EC on the activities and supervision of institutions for occupational retirement provision (IORP Directive) are applied by both countries.

In relation to social welfare pensions, these are governed by EU Regulations 883/04 and 987/09. The Regulations co-ordinate social security systems and are designed to ensure that people are not disadvantaged by moving within the EU to take up work. These arrangements also extend to EEA countries and Switzerland.

The Regulations set out the rules as to which State's social security system a person will pay contributions to when they move from one Member State to another to take up work, or where they live in one State and work in another. In addition, the legislation also sets out the rules as to which State will pay benefit in the event of the usual contingencies arising, e.g. unemployment, sickness, old-age etc. In relation to pensions, contributions made in both countries are aggregated for the purposes of determining eligibility and payments made by each country are determined by amount of contributions made in each.

Article 20 of the IORPs Directive allows pension schemes to operate 'cross-border'. This means that a pension scheme can be established in one EU Member State which provides benefits to employees working in one or more other Member States. Part XII of the Pensions Act provides for the transposition of Article 20 of this Directive. The key provisions of this legislation are that the pension scheme must be registered with a competent authority (Pensions Board) and must fulfil a number of minimum conditions, such as being run by people of good repute who have appropriate qualifications and having properly constituted rules. The Pension Act also provides that member protection provisions of the Pensions Act are to be applied to Irish-based members of overseas schemes and these include requirements in relation to the preservation of benefits and the jurisdiction of the Pensions Ombudsman.