The Irish Pensions Authority secured convictions against three employers in 2019, out of a total nine prosecutions that were concluded.

Two of the cases where a conviction was secured related to the deduction and non-remittance of employee pension contributions to schemes within the statutory timeframe (section 58A(1) of the Pensions Act). Another related to failure to respond to a statutory request for information from the Authority (section 18 of the Pensions Act).

The remaining cases were mostly struck out due to payment of arrears or the underlying matter being rectified in advance of the court date, the authority said.

Giving an update of its regulatory work in 2019, it said that throughout the year it continued to provide technical support to the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection in preparing for the transposition of the IORP II Directive into Irish law.

The Pensions Regulator, Brendan Kennedy, said: “During 2019 the authority made further progress towards the implementation of a forward looking risk based approach to supervision. In 2019 the authority also began to increase our supervision capacity and enhance our internal IT and data management capabilities.”

Last year saw the authority open 55 new investigations into various alleged breaches of the Pensions Act. The alleged breaches varied from deduction and non-remittance of pension contributions to failure to reply to a statutory request for information. Sixty-three investigations were finalised and closed during the year.

The authority also undertook four onsite inspections; three of personal retirement savings account (PRSA) providers and one of a professional trustee. The objective of these inspections was to assess standards of pension administration, data management and levels of compliance with the Pensions Act, the authority said.

In addition, 159 desk-based audits were carried out on a sample of occupational pension schemes and PRSAs. These audits focused on self-investment by employers, disclosure obligations and the rights of employees to have access to a pension scheme, PRSA and or AVCs.

In terms of defined benefit (DB) schemes, 503 of the 597 DB schemes subject to the funding standard were in compliance with the standard as at 31 December 2019. All bar seven of the remaining 94 schemes have funding proposals, or are in the process of submitting funding proposals, designed to enable the scheme to satisfy the funding standard within a specified term.

The authority said it is maintaining close engagement with the trustees of these seven schemes. Four funding proposals from DB schemes were also approved and one application to reduce accrued benefits from a DB scheme was approved.

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