Ireland’s Pensions Authority expects master trusts to become the main provider of defined contribution (DC) pensions in Ireland as market consolidation gathers pace.
Andrew Nugent, director of supervision, enforcement, policy and legal at the authority, set out his outlook for the Irish pensions landscape at the regulator’s conference in Dublin this week.
As of the second quarter of 2025, there are 1.3 million active members across DC, defined benefit (DB) and public sector schemes, with scheme and personal retirement savings account (PRSA) assets totalling €162bn.
The market currently comprises 12 group master trusts and five retail master trusts for one-member arrangements (OMAs), alongside 9,000 group DC schemes, 411 DB schemes, 90,000 OMAs, 311,000 PRSA contracts and 86 registered administrators.
OMAs face an April 2026 deadline to comply with IORP II requirements, and those unable to do so will be required to transfer members to alternative arrangements – expected to reduce OMA numbers “significantly” as members move into retail master trusts.
Master trusts already account for 50% of DC assets, a share Nugent said is growing “rapidly”.
From June 2023 to June 2025, membership more than doubled from 315,000 to 659,000, while assets rose from €13.9bn to €35.2bn. Over the same period, the number of participating employers doubled from 15,000 to 30,000.
Nugent said: “If an employer is looking to set up a scheme for their employees, [they] are going directly to master trusts, so there is new growth but also a lot of consolidation. We’ve seen a huge drop off in the establishment of single-employer pension schemes.”
He noted that the number of new single-employer schemes has fallen from 14,000 a year to “about two”.
The contraction is also visible in existing group DC schemes, which declined by 48% from 17,500 in June 2023 to 9,000. Only 20% of those remaining are still receiving contributions, with many frozen or without assets.
Nugent said the authority is working to address these schemes, adding: “If schemes in this group are intending on consolidating and haven’t done it, [they] need to get on with it.”
“We’ve been patient and pragmatic, but it’s beginning to wear thin,” he warned, stressing that master trusts will be “the main provision going forward”.
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