Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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415. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the position regarding pension trustees (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8328/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Employers who sponsor a pension scheme are required from February 2010 to arrange for the trustees of the scheme to receive appropriate training within six months of their appointment and at least every two years thereafter. Trustees must confirm in their scheme’s annual report which is distributed to scheme members that the training has taken place.

The Board does not collect data directly in relation to the numbers of pension scheme trustees who have completed the training requirements through a third party. However, the Board monitors compliance with the trustee training obligation on an ongoing basis through audits on a randomly selected range of schemes. As part of these audits the trustees are obliged to submit a copy of trustee training confirmation records to the Board

The Pensions Board launched its free e-learning system for pension scheme trustees on 14 January 2010. Since it was launched 1,594 trustees have completed the online course and have been issued with their certificates confirming same.

Further information on trustee training and a list of self-certified trustee trainers is available on the Boards website at . Currently there are some 56 trainers listed.