Dominic Hannigan (Meath East, Labour)
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390. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to any implications on the Irish airlines superannuation scheme arising from the Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill 2013; what these implications are; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19649/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Deputy will appreciate that it is not appropriate for me to comment on matters relating to an individual pension scheme.

A number of changes have been made to the Pensions Act in recent years to assist employers and the trustees respond to the funding challenges facing many defined benefit pension scheme.

The Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2009 broadened the options available to the trustees of a pension scheme in the event of the restructure of scheme benefits to include the benefits of deferred scheme members and post retirement increases in such benefits.

Prior to the 2009 Act, only the benefits of active scheme members could be considered in a restructure of scheme benefits. The Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Bill further extends the options available to trustees of a scheme to include a portion of benefits payable to pensioners. It essentially provides for the sharing of the risk of scheme underfunding across all scheme members. However, the legislation restricts the extent to which pensioner benefits can be restructured as it is considered that this category of beneficiary has less potential to respond to a restructure of scheme benefits.

Deferred and active scheme members are treated equally for the purposes of a scheme restructuring under section 50 of the Pensions Act. A deferred scheme member is a scheme member who has left employment to which the scheme relates and who is entitled to a pension payment at a future date. A deferred member may be close to retirement or may be many years from retirement age and may have the opportunity to accumulate pension entitlements in a number of pension schemes before reaching retirement age.

The issue of how these changes might be applied will be a matter for the trustees of a pension scheme who are required under trust law to act in the best interest of all scheme beneficiaries.

Any consideration of a restructure of pension scheme benefits must comply with the provisions in the Pensions Act and with guidance issued by the Pensions Authority. The Pensions Authority must be satisfied that these provisions are complied with before the Authority will consider issuing a notice to restructure scheme benefits.