Protected disclosures

The Protected Disclosures Act 2014 (the 2014 Act) provides that a worker may make a protected disclosure in certain circumstances to a ‘prescribed person’ under the 2014 Act. The Pensions Regulator is such a prescribed person’. A worker may make a protected disclosure if he or she reasonably believes that a relevant wrongdoing which relates to the following has occurred:

‘All matters relating to the monitoring and supervision of the operation of the Pensions Act 1990 (No. 25 of 1990) (other than investigations by, and decisions of, the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman), including the activities of Personal Retirement Savings Account (PRSA) providers, the provision of PRSA products, the operation of PRSAs and the issue of guidelines and codes of practice for trustees of occupational pension schemes and providers of PRSAs’.

Please note that the 2014 Act also provides that for the disclosure to qualify as a protected disclosure, the worker must believe that the information and any allegation contained in it are substantially true.

If you wish to make a disclosure under the 2014 Act, you can do so by emailing protecteddisclosures@pensionsauthority.ie. Details that should be included in a disclosure are set out in the document below.

Please note that the 2014 Act does not oblige a worker to make a disclosure and it does not absolve a worker from any pre-existing mandatory reporting obligations set out in legislation, such as those contained in the Pensions Act, 1990, as amended.