Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 31 May 2011
103 Deputy Terence Flanagan asked the Minister for Finance, further to Parliamentary Question No. 100 of 16 June 2010, the date in 2011 on which he proposes to introduce this legislation; if a title for the Bill has been introduced; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13237/11]
View answerThe legislation in question, to which my predecessor in this post referred in replies to the Deputy through parliamentary questions numbered 100 of 16 June 2010 and 87 of 7 October 2010, is to do with the extension of the option to invest in an Approved Retirement Fund (ARF) to all members of Defined Contribution pension schemes in respect of the main benefits from those schemes. The extension of the ARF option has been provided for by Section 19 of the Finance Act 2011. The Deputy was particularly concerned about individuals who invested some or all of their pension funds in an Approved Minimum Retirement Fund (AMRF) because they did not satisfy the specified income requirement at retirement (which would have enabled them to invest in an ARF) but who might subsequently satisfy that requirement at a later time.
Section 19 Finance Act 2011 provides that the guaranteed income requirement, if not satisfied at the time of retirement, may be satisfied at any time after retirement (and before age 75) at which point the AMRF becomes an ARF. Moreover, for individuals who retired before the date of the passing of Finance Act 2011 and who had an AMRF before that date, the guaranteed income requirement which operated before the passing of the Act (€12,700 per annum) will continue to apply for a 3 year period for such individuals.
