A Self Administered Fund is a Pension set up by an individual or individuals who have spare cash or a significant Pension fund already in place. It would not be "very suitable" for anyone who had €400K on deposit but needed it for cashflow purposes.
With a Self-Administered fund you are in control of the fund along with a nominated Revenue Approved Trustee (who basically overseas the project and that all Rules and Regulations are followed)
A Self Administered Fund allows the individual to put in say €300K into the fund. (There would be an immediate tax saving of 12.5% on this in Corporation Tax in the Company Accounts). This €300K can be combined with existing pensions into the new fund set up as JOE BLOGGS PENSION FUND LIMITED.
The owner then can do what they like (with approval from the Trustee) in this Fund. Say for example they purchase a property. The property is worth €2m and requires a €1.5m loan. This is rented to a third party (must be an unconnected party). The Rental income plus any ongoing monthly contributions will go into this fund tax free.
Therefore loan repayments can be upped to match this and you should see the paying off of this loan happen much quicker than in normal circumstances. Over a period of time you should have the loan paid off and the asset appreciated. Thus turning your few hundred thousand into hopefully a lot more (obviously within your pension fund)
At any stage there is the opportunity to dispose of any asset and flip it over to a new asset etc (again with Trustee approval)
The major plusses to this above putting it in a normal pension fund are:
1) Transparency: you can see what you own and monitoring it is easier
2) Cost: There is obviously a set-up fee but there is the annual charges consist of an audit (as its a Limited Company as well as being a Pension Fund)
I hope this clarifies it somewhat for you??