Events

The Pensions Authority Conference 2026 took place on Tuesday 15 September 2026 in the Round Room at the Mansion House in Dublin 2.

The focus for this conference was on the Authority’s ongoing implementation of forward-looking risk-based supervision and the importance of data to support such endeavours; authorisation regime for Irish pension schemes; increasing EU obligations; cyber security as a critical risk and use of Artificial Intelligence in pensions.

The target audience for this conference was pension scheme trustees, registered administrators, pension advisors and the wider pensions industry.

A full house at the Pensions Authority Conference 2026, focused on forward-looking risk-based supervision.

Many thanks to Minister Dara Calleary, Petra Hielkema, Brendan Kennedy, Andrew Nugent, Eithne Rafferty, Paul Stanley, Joyce Brennan, Brian Balmforth and John Gethin for sharing their insights.

The key takeaways were:

• Forward-looking risk-based supervision relies on quality data, strong governance and early risk identification.
• Consolidation, authorisation and auto-enrolment are reshaping the Irish pensions landscape.
• Cyber security and artificial intelligence are growing considerations for trustees and pension scheme governance.
• Ireland’s EU Presidency presents an opportunity to help shape the future European pensions agenda.

The conference agenda, speaker biographies, and presentation slides are provided below.

The Pensions Authority hosted the Supervision of pensions 2025 – 2029 conference on Wednesday 17 September 2025 in the Round Room at the Mansion House, Dublin 2.

The focus for this conference was on the changing landscape of Irish pensions and consolidation, the Authority’s ongoing implementation of forward-looking risk-based supervision and the increasing EU obligations and the importance of data to support such endeavours.

The target audience for this conference was pension scheme trustees, registered administrators, pension advisors and the wider pensions industry.

The video recording can be viewed here. The conference agenda, speaker biographies, and presentation slides are provided below.

On Wednesday 11 October, the Pensions Authority held its Risk Conference at The Marker Hotel in Dublin.

The theme of the conference was risk management for pension schemes and the related increased obligations on trustees from the transposition of the IORP II directive into Irish law. The speakers and the titles of their presentations were:

• Tim O’Hanrahan, Head of Insurance Supervision of the Central Bank of Ireland, ‘Risk management – insights from financial services firms’,
• Alan Pickering, President of BESTrustees, London, ‘Risk management – a friendly view from across the water’,
• Will Price, CEO of D3P Global Pension Consulting, ‘International lessons on risk management for pension schemes’, and
• Grace Guy, Head of Supervision and Enforcement with the Pensions Authority, ‘Irish pension scheme risk management’.

The Authority launched its guidance on the own-risk assessment (ORA) for pension schemes at the conference and this can be found here.

The video recording can be viewed here and the speaker bios along with the slides for the presentation are available in the Related File(s) area and the end of the page.

Continuous Professional Development

The Risk Conference was accredited for CPD hours by the IIPM, LIA and IOB in the category of (MCC2) Pensions, and by the IIPM and LIA in the category of (MCC3) Savings and Investments.