# is the eircom superannuation scheme state guaranteed?



## schmieker (28 Mar 2009)

is the eircom superannuation scheme state guaranteed?


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## ajapale (28 Mar 2009)

This is an interesting question.

You should contact the trade unions who negotiated the deal at privatisation for the answer.

I know some public sector superannuation schemes were not government backed. Irish Fertiliser and Irish Shipping. When these former state owned entities went broke employees retired on a fraction of their expected pensions.

Eircom is unusual in that originally it was part of the Civil Service P&T and then became a commercial semistate organisation and finally was privatised and consequently changed hands a number of times.

You could also ask the trustees of the scheme whether there is any explicit or implicit state guarantee.

aj


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## z109 (28 Mar 2009)

[broken link removed]
Footnote 17 on page 26 would appear to indicate not:


> The table excludes two noteworthy schemes: the eircom Superannuation Scheme and two schemes
> which cover employees and pilots of the Irish airlines industry....
> The eircom Scheme is excluded since its sponsor is privately held
> though accounts pre-dating that transaction (as at 31 March 2006) indicate that IAS19 liabilities of €2.9
> ...


In any case, why would one expect it to be? Eircom has been privatised for 10 years or more at this stage. Should the state be expected to hold an unlimited liability for the management of a private pension scheme?

Macbri's post on the "When's our next ESOP payout" thread (  ) would appear to indicate that the scheme is 433 mn AUD underfunded (I think, Macbri corrects the figures on a later post and changes currency).

Are you an existing or future pensioner?


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## z109 (28 Mar 2009)

A further update from the B&BC half yearly results:
[broken link removed]


> In line with financial market performance during the period, the market value of
> the assets held in the eircom principal pension scheme fell by 22% to €2,143
> million resulting in a deficit of €433 million.



So this almost certainly means that it is a private pension scheme with no state guarantee, but, as ajapale says, talk to your union reps and the pension trustees of the scheme.

Unfortunately in Ireland, there is no private pension insurance scheme. In the event of company default, the pension scheme is used first to guarantee the pensions of the existing retired and then proportioned to the non-retired.


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