In 2018, we saw interesting developments across many areas of
pensions law. The publication of the Roadmap for Pension
reform 2018-2023 detailed the Government’s plans to reform
pensions in Ireland over the coming years. The coming into
effect of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679
(“GDPR”) in May presented new
challenges for pension schemes and their trustees to manage and
these will continue into 2019. In this update, we look back
on the main developments which took place during the year.
1. A Roadmap for Pensions Reform 2018 – 2023
The Government launched this five-year action plan for the
reform of the Irish pension system in February 2018. This document
identifies the key challenges facing supplementary or private
pension provision in Ireland. These include the low level of
pensions coverage, the disproportionately high number of schemes
and the continuing trend of historically low interest rates, which
has had the effect of increasing the
