The number of defined benefit (DB) pension schemes in Ireland fell by 6 per cent in 2021, the Irish Pensions Authority has revealed.

In an update that used data from schemes’ Annual Actuarial Data Returns (AADR) up to 31 March 2022, the authority noted that the number of ‘continuing’ DB schemes, which includes active and ‘frozen’ schemes, fell from 558 to 526.

Frozen schemes are defined as schemes that provide benefits only for members whose service has been terminated, or continuing service in employment does not entitle members to long service benefits and no new members are admitted.

The number of schemes in wind up rose from 2 to 14, while the number of schemes subject to the funding standard fell from 560 to 540.

Continuing schemes (excluding one large scheme subject to the funding standard in which members build up retirement funds exclusively on a defined contribution basis) had a total of 302,424 members as of March 2022, consisting of 106,177 pensioners, 68,265 active members and 127,982 deferred members.

Total continuing scheme liabilities stood at €65bn, with scheme liabilities for pensions in payment making up 59 per cent of the aggregate funding standard liabilities, up from 57 per cent in 2020.

The number of pensioners increased by 2 per cent in 2021, while there was a reduction of 4 per cent and 6 per cent in the number of active and deferred members, respectively.

Those continuing schemes’ assets increased from €70.5bn in 2020 to €73.7bn in 2021, with the surplus increasing by €2.5bn to €8.8bn.

The percentage of continuing schemes holding equities fell from 24.5 per cent to 23.8 per cent, those holding EU sovereign bonds declined from 35.3 per cent to 33.7 per cent, while those holding other bonds increased from 9.8 per cent to 11.9 per cent.

“The effective date of each AADR is the end date of the relevant scheme year,” the authority stated.

“Because different schemes have different scheme year-end dates, there is no single return date for the data. The effective dates are spread over the 2020 and 2021 calendar years.

“The average return date was February 2021. For simplicity, the data in this report is referred to as the ‘2021 data’.

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