Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 May 2015
168. Deputy Mary Mitchell O'Connor asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection if her Department has co-ordinated with actuaries to reconsider the standards of practice and the life tables in relation to retirement, due to the fact that as many as 200,000 persons are expecting to receive retirement income; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [20124/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraLiabilities of a pension scheme can broadly be split between pensions currently payable to pensioners and deferred pension entitlements (i.e., for all active employees and former employees who have not yet reached retirement age and have future pension entitlements from the scheme). The cost of pensions in payment can be determined by reference to the cost of an equivalent annuity or annuities. The value of deferred pension entitlements is taken as the individual transfer values to which each member would be entitled on the date he or she transferred out of a scheme.
The trustees of a defined benefit pension scheme are required to maintain sufficient assets in a pension scheme in order to meet the liabilities of the scheme in the event of a wind-up of the scheme. This requirement is often referred to as the Funding Standard. For the purposes of the Funding Standard, assets must be valued at their realisable value.
A scheme actuary who is valuing the assets and liabilities of a pension scheme for the purposes of determining whether it complies with the Funding Standard must comply with Actuarial Statements of Practice issued by the Society of Actuaries in Ireland and with Statutory Guidance issued by the Pensions Authority. These statements of practice and statutory guidance which reference the life tables are updated periodically and are subject to the approval of the Minister for Social Protection. Work in this regard, therefore, involves the Society of Actuaries in Ireland, the Pensions Authority and the Department.
