Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael)
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129. To ask the Minister for Finance if additional access will be given to persons who have built up funds through voluntary contributions towards their occupational pensions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8155/17]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I take it that the Deputy is referring to access to Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) prior to retirement.

As outlined in my response to Parliamentary Question No. 165 of 27 September 2016 (PQ 26673/16), Finance Act 2013 introduced Section 782A of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 which provided members of occupational pension schemes with a once-off opportunity to access up to 30% of their AVCs prior to retirement. The option was available for a three year period from 27 March 2013, the date that Finance Act 2013 was passed into law, and came to an end on 26 March 2016.

There are a number of reasons why pre-retirement access to pension savings is not permitted on a general basis, the principal one being that these arrangements (and the associated tax reliefs on contributions and pension fund growth) are designed to be long term savings vehicles based on the principle that the benefits will be "locked away" to help fund an adequate income in retirement.

The pre-retirement access to a portion of AVCs which I introduced in Budget and Finance Act 2013 was allowed on a tax-neutral basis. The contributions were tax-relieved at the individual's marginal rate on the way in and were taxed at the individual's marginal rate on withdrawal. This was a measure designed to enable rather than incentivise individuals to access part of their pension savings beyond their regular or compulsory pension contributions.

I am informed by the Revenue Commissioners that the most up to date figures for the AVC access scheme are that 18,682 individuals availed of the early access facility over the 3 year period to the amount of just over €202 million gross in drawdowns, on which tax of some €79 million was paid (the exact figure is €79,029,232 million).

It is important that individuals continue to provide for their retirement and, it would appear, most individuals with AVCs decided to preserve their AVC pension savings. I have no plans to reintroduce the measure along the lines suggested in the question.