Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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268. To ask the Minister for Finance his views on a recent European Parliament and European Council regulation regarding the pan-European personal pension product which was published on 25 July 2019 with entry into force on 14 August 2019 (detail supplied); the actions his Department has taken and subsequently plans to take to address the stated aims of the regulation to ensure a high level of transparency and for costs and fees to be fully transparent; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21375/21]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The European Commission proposal for a Pan-European Personal Pension Product (PEPP) was adopted by Council in 2019. Separately, the Level 2 Regulatory Technical Standards were approved by Council and published on 22 March 2021. Accordingly, the Regulation will enter into application by 22 March 2022 - a year following the technical standards publication.

The Pensions Policy Unit within my Department had domestic responsibility for negotiating this file and has engaged with key domestic stakeholders such as the Department of Social Protection, the Pensions Authority, the Central Bank of Ireland and the Office of the Revenue Commissioners as part of the negotiation process.

I am supportive of the PEPP project in principle, recognising the proposal's objective to lay the foundations for a safer, more cost-efficient and transparent market in affordable and voluntary personal pension savings that can be managed on a pan-European scale. It is envisaged that the PEPP framework will constitute a complementary voluntary scheme alongside national regimes. Work on this transposition is ongoing with a view to completion within the time-frame.

The Interdepartmental Pensions Reform and Taxation Group, chaired by my Department, published its Report on supplementary pensions in November 2020. As far as is possible, and consistent with the Group's overarching objective of pension rationalisation and simplification the Report proposes to align the PEPP with existing PRSA legislation.

In an Irish context, PEPP is likely to be of most interest to mobile workers. Apart from portability, a PRSA potentially has more flexible features than a PEPP, means that the PEPP is unlikely to be more attractive to domestic consumers. However, it may introduce greater competition if European providers offer the PEPP to Irish savers. The first PEPP products are expected to come to the market in 2022.

The PEPP Regulation contains a number of specific elements including requirements for mandatory advice, for providers to account for Environmental, Social, and Governance factors, and has a cost cap in specific circumstances. As the complexity of some pension products requires a high level of intermediation between the consumer and supplementary pension providers, it is expected that information will be easy to read and will allow for comparability between PEPPs by displaying costs and fees in monetary terms.