The Irish Pensions Authority (IPA) has said that it is “disappointing” that some qualifying pension schemes were still not compliant with the provisions of the IORP II Directive.

In the IPA’s Annual Report and Accounts, pensions regulator, Brendan Kennedy, noted that the vast majority of occupational pension schemes had decided to wind-up and transfer assets and, where relevant, contributions, to master trusts or personal retirement savings accounts (PRSA).

However, he added that it was disappointing that, three years after the transposition date, this process was not yet complete for schemes that did not qualify for derogation under the transposition regulations.

The authority is continuing to engage with trustees, administrators, and advisers to address any obstacles that may arise.

“However, for all but a handful of pension schemes, there is no technical reason why they should not be compliant by now,” Kennedy stated.

“Employers should check with the trustees of their scheme that it is compliant and, if not, take immediate action to address this.”

The IPA’s report and accounts also revealed the authority’s regulatory activity and outputs, including 12 new investigations being opened in 2023 for various alleged breaches of the Pensions Act, 1990, as amended, while nine investigations were finalised and closed.

The authority held 27 engagement meetings with the trustee boards of master trusts, focused on the requirements of a minimum compliance standard, and five engagement meetings with the trustee boards of defined benefit (DB) schemes, focused on their governance systems.

A total of 40 one-member small self-administered pensions (SSAP) were audited to determine the level of compliance with the investment and borrowing requirements for one-member arrangements (OMAs) of the IORP II Directive.

One new registered administrator application was processed during the year, while 97 were renewed and two were terminated.

Twelve PRSA providers had their PRSA products audited to review compliance with the requirement to prepare a default investment strategy for each PRSA product they operate.

Surveys were completed for 53 DB and 97 defined contribution (DC) schemes to assess the progress made by trustees on the requirement to have key function holders in place, while 100 schemes were audited to check compliance with the annual compliance statement (ACS) obligation.

More than 315,000 data submissions from regulated entities were processed through the IPA’s Pensions Data Register, and over 12,500 pension queries, general pension and data processing queries were received and dealt with in 2023.

“An issue that has emerged from recent authority supervisory work, from the work on our new scheme register and from engagement with administrators relating to consolidation, is the unreliability of some of the data on the authority’s scheme register,” Kennedy stated.

“As a consequence, the authority is no longer publishing its annual summary of scheme membership numbers.

“Trustees are reminded that they have a legal obligation to ensure that the registration information they provide to the authority is accurate and up to date. The authority is also engaging with a number of registered administrators in relation to poor service provision to trustees in this area.

“The objective of the ongoing change to pensions, both occupational pension schemes and PRSAs, is to ensure good outcomes for those saving for their retirement. Good progress has been made in recent years but more remains to be done.”

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