Regulations threaten defined pensions

PENSION schemes that guarantee a percentage of employees’ final salaries will soon die out without a change to Irish pension laws, a leading academic has warned.

Shane Whelan of University College Dublin said current regulations were stifling defined benefit pension schemes and increased the costs involved in running them.

Writing in the latest edition of the Irish Banking Review, the quarterly newsletter of the Irish Bankers’ Federation, Mr Whelan said new pensions legislation introduced last year placed an unnecessary burden on employers.