Pensions Board not contacted about levy

MINISTER for Finance Michael Noonan had no contact with the Pensions Board before the decision to impose the pension levy, despite legislation recommending he do so, the Dáil was told.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said the Minister “made the remarkable admission” in a parliamentary reply that he “has had no communications whatsoever with the Pensions Board before making this decision”.

During Dáil Leaders’ Questions, the Fianna Fáil leader said the Pensions Act states that the board’s duty is to “monitor and supervise pensions developments and it explicitly envisages that the Minister for Finance should seek advice from the board”.

Mr Martin raised the issue as he accused Taoiseach Enda Kenny of failing to provide “a regulatory impact assessment, obligatory in every legislative provision”, about the decision to impose the €1.8 billion levy.

The Fianna Fáil leader said Mr Kenny had originally promised to provide information but then “failed to reply to a written request from me for material”.

He asked if the Taoiseach was happy that the “legal role of the Pensions Board has been ignored in this case”.

Mr Kenny said, however, that he was not sure what Mr Martin was looking for.

“You are persisting as if there’s some sort of hidden volumes of detailed analysis and information about the jobs initiative and its funding, which is coming through a levy on the pensions industry.”

He said “long before the election” the pensions industry had made the case that “instead of reducing tax relief, a levy on the fund to be collected by the industry was the way to go”.

Mr Kenny added that “this levy is 0.6 per cent which is 60 cent in every €100,” and Mr Martin could ask “any question you like” on the committee stage next week of the Finance Bill which gives effect to the measures in the Government’s jobs initiative.