The Irish Pensions Authority (IPA) has revealed the summary of its regulatory activity in 2022, which included the conclusion of five prosecution cases and one conviction.

The conviction related to the deduction and non-remittance of employee pension contributions to a scheme within the statutory timeframe set out in the Pensions Act 1990.

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

In 2022, the authority opened 15 new investigations into various alleged breaches on the act, ranging from deduction and non-remittance of pension contributions to failure to pay benefits.

A total of 17 investigations were finalised and closed during the year.

It held 19 engagement meetings with the trustee boards of master trusts, with the meetings focusing on ensuring that master trusts were fit for purpose and able to offer a viable alternative to schemes that chose to wind-up rather than meet the increased governance and risk management requirements.

There were eight engagement meeting with the trustee boards of defined benefit and defined contribution (DC) schemes, which focused on how well prepared schemes were to meet the enhanced governance and risk management requirements in advance of the compliance deadline of 1 January 2023 for group schemes.

A total of 160 DB and 160 DC trustees were surveyed to assess their plans to meet enhanced governance and risk management requirements, with the fundings indicating that there was still a lot of work to be done ahead of the compliance deadline of 1 January 2023 for group schemes.

A sample of group schemes and one-member arrangements (OMA) were subjected to spot checks on the 2021 annual compliance statement (ACS), and the IPA found that while most schemes were compliance, there was a lack of understanding of the ACS requirements and process among trustees of smaller schemes.

The authority also found that the majority of new OMA trustees audited did not meet the compliance standards and, in almost all cases, the trustees notified the authority of their intention to wind-up the OMAs.

More than 11,000 general pension and data processing queries were received and dealt with during the year, the IPA revealed.

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