Good evening Minister, members and guests. It is an honour to stand here as Chair of the Irish Association of Pension Funds, an organisation with a long and proud tradition of championing better retirement outcomes for the people of Ireland.  We do this through strong advocacy and pragmatic policy engagement.  We empower trustees and pension professionals through a communal environment that provides for information exchange, education and support.

My involvement with IAPF stretches back several years.  My background and my career has been in IT and project management in the Energy Sector not Financial Services, so you might wonder where my interest in Pensions and Trusteeship comes from.

Back in the late 1990s the EU moved to deregulate the Energy Sector and at the time I was working for ESB National Grid. 

Statutory Instrument 445 of 2000, which was the transposition of the EU Directive into Irish law set out the establishment of the Energy Regulator and the Independent System Operator (EirGrid) among other things.  I was asked to project manage the transition from ESB National Grid to EirGrid. 

One of the key elements of that transition was to see staff transfer from ESB to EirGrid.  Staff were concerned that their terms, conditions and benefits would not be replicated in this new entity EirGrid.  A key element of encouraging staff to transfer was to replicate their pension benefits from ESB in EirGrid.  This meant establishing a Defined Benefit Pension scheme for EirGrid and now we have an unusual situation of operating a young DB scheme with few pensioners and many active and deferred members. 

My involvement in that process sparked an interest and I put myself forward and was elected as a Trustee when the scheme was established and the members have re-elected me at subsequent Trustee elections.

As a Trustee I needed to educate myself, and the IAPF was central to that, allowing me to engage with other Trustees and learn how to deal with the various entities involved in running a successful Pension Scheme. 

Through the IAPF I learned about IORPS II, which prompted me to attain two Trustee qualifications – Qualified Pension Trustee and Pension Trustee Practitioner.  I have served on IAPF council for many years and on the IAPF Investment committee prior to being selected as Chairperson.

My fundamental motivation as Trustee or as Chairperson of IAPF is to ensure Pension Scheme members enjoy the best possible outcomes for their retirement.

Tonight, as I look around this room, I see the full ecosystem that keeps Ireland’s pension system moving: employers, trustees, scheme managers, advisers, and service providers. Collectively, we deliver pension benefits to 1.6 million people, and steward €140 billion in assets.  In a significant shift, for the past two years Defined Contribution scheme assets have now overtaken DB assets, and Master Trusts are becoming the dominant model for delivering DC based scheme benefits.

We have a lot to be proud of.

• Our defined benefit schemes continue to de-risk, to strengthen, and to better secure the pensions that generations of workers rely on. Trustees and advisers have been doing incredibly sophisticated work, managing risk, adjusting strategy, and ensuring that these schemes remain solid foundations for the people depending on them.
• Master Trusts are now the backbone of DC savings in Ireland.  They are delivering real value. The benefits of Master Trust model are strong governance, high standards, financial security, excellent investment options, and improved member communications and advice.

• Members have typically seen their funds increase in value by more than 1/3rd over the past three years. With 40% tax relief and excellent investment returns, a member who joined a pension plan three years ago has seen their net contribution double in value, and double again when employers match contributions.
• These are outcomes that matter. These are outcomes that change lives and facilitate a positive retirement experience. 

Auto-enrolment and minimum contributions

Minister, I would like to congratulate you on launching auto-enrolment this year. Mayo people are well used to long periods of waiting and anticipation followed by disappointment.  Indeed, as a Wexford man myself I can relate to that– we’re now in 2026 and it will be 30 years since there was dancing at the crossroads following All Ireland success!

After 25 years of anticipation and waiting, it took a Mayo man to deliver this prize.

You stood here last year and promised that auto-enrolment would be reality when you addressed us this year. Having seen a few false dawns previously, I was impressed by that promise, and you have delivered. Congratulations. This is a landmark moment. Auto-enrolment will open the door for hundreds of thousands of workers who have never had access to structured retirement saving.

It is a major step forward in reducing pension inequality, preventing poverty in later life, and extending financial dignity into older age. It’s an important addition to the service that employment-based pension plans have been providing on a voluntary basis for decades.

I also acknowledge the significant work carried out by employers, trustees and advisers to prepare for this moment. Because of that work, up to 100,000 employees chose to join high-quality employment-based schemes last year, a sign that awareness and engagement are rising.

Minister, we want to emphasise that employment-based pension plans are strong, well-funded and well-governed. They have a long track record of delivering benefits over several decades. They need to retain the freedom to design solutions that suit their members and to innovative by providing valuable services to members.

I want to reaffirm IAPF’s position that no employer should enrol employees in a pension arrangement that delivers less value than auto-enrolment. This was a disappointing development by a minority of employers.

However, the absence of consultation or a notice period ahead of the December regulations was deeply concerning for us. As always, we remain fully available to your Department to engage constructively and to help develop solutions that work for employers, pension savers, and pension providers. Partnership, dialogue, and careful consultation are central to Ireland’s reputation as a stable and reliable place in which to do business.

The minimum contribution regulations have caused unnecessary confusion. Pension schemes which for decades have provided employees with the flexibility to select their contribution rate are now being forced to make rapid and unexpected adjustments, having understood no such changes would be needed for several years. 

We ask that your Department and NEARSA work with us and the industry to create workable minimum standards, grounded in the true value delivered by employment-based schemes, rather than short-term, overly prescriptive metrics that risk distorting outcomes.

We have a common goal of ensuring strong retirement outcomes for Irish workers.  Let’s work together to ensure that employment based pension schemes and auto-enrolment complement each other to deliver that goal.

Ireland needs a pension landscape that supports choice and innovation. We are asking that employers, trustees and providers retain the freedom to design high-quality, competitive pension plans for the benefit of their members, and to continue developing new services and supports that build financial security over a lifetime.

Minister, tonight we’re asking for partnership. Partnership that protects strong employer schemes, that supports innovation, good governance and ensures the continued success of MyFutureFund alongside a thriving employment-based pension system.

If we get this right, we can build a pension framework that supports every Irish worker, with dignity, clarity, and financial confidence.

Other priorities

Turning to other priorities for 2026, we are especially encouraged by the Pensions Authority’s consultation on in-scheme drawdown. We have submitted our paper, and we believe this could transform the Irish retirement landscape. If implemented well, it means members can remain within the trusted environment of their pension scheme throughout retirement, with continued governance, scale, and support.

For many, this will bring comfort, clarity, and connection, at a time in life when decisions may feel more complex. As pension plans evolve into whole-of-life savings vehicles, our focus remains on empowering members to make good decisions, from their first payslip to their final years.

IAPF is committed to driving transparency and value for money. How do we measure “value”?  We need to understand and quantify outcomes and services.  We need to engender trust. We can then weigh that up against the prices we pay to deliver. 

We have prepared a proposed framework that would provide trustees with data on typical fees and charges, investment performance and risk, and importantly, quality of member services. A value for money framework must encourage innovation and investment in services. We welcome the Pensions Authority’s engagement with us on this important topic, which will continue over the coming weeks.

I want to finish by firstly thanking you, our members, for your continued support of IAPF. We are a not-for-profit organisation, and our work would not be possible without our many volunteers who contribute their time generously toward our objective of making pensions simple, fair and transparent. We couldn’t do any of this without you.  Please enjoy the rest of your evening.

Minister Calleary, thank you for accepting our invitation to join us this evening.  I look forward to listening to your insights and your outlook for the road ahead. It is my pleasure to invite you now to the stage to address us.