Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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30. To ask the Minister for Social Protection her plans to address the serious impact of changes in pensions legislation which allows trustees to reduce the payments to current pensioners and deferred members. [17328/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Section 50 of the Pensions Act was amended in 2009 and again in 2013 to assist both the employers and the trustees of defined benefit pension schemes respond to the funding difficulties encountered by many defined benefit pension schemes. These changes provide for the sharing of the risk of scheme underfunding across all scheme members.

It is a matter for the trustees of a scheme, who are required under trust law to act in the best interests of all scheme members, to determine how the provisions in section 50 of the Act might be applied.

I do not plan to bring forward amendments to this section of the Pensions Act at this time but I will continue to monitor the application of this section on an ongoing basis.