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This release is categorised as a CSO Frontier Series Output. Particular care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this release as it may use new methods which are under development and/or data sources which may be incomplete, for example new administrative data sources. For further information on the data sources, linking procedures and limitations of this report, see the Background Notes section.
The linkage and analysis were undertaken by the CSO for statistical purposes in line with the Statistics Act, 1993 and the CSO Data Protocol.
Before using personal administrative data for statistical purposes, the CSO removes all identifying personal information, including the Personal Public Service Number (PPSN). The PPSN is a unique number that enables individuals to access social welfare benefits, personal taxation and other public services in Ireland. The CSO converts the PPSN to a Protected Identifier Key (PIK). The PIK is a unique and non-identifiable number which is internal to the CSO. Using the PIK enables the CSO to link and analyse data for statistical purposes, while protecting the security and confidentiality of the individual's data.
All records in the datasets are anonymised and the results are in the form of statistical aggregates which do not identify any individuals.
The analysis presented in this release covers years 2019 to 2024 inclusive. PRSA providers submit the Schedule B data quarterly to the Pensions Authority. The final quarter return for each year is used as the reference period for comparisons between years, as it provides the most up to date information for a given year.
The PRSA Schedule B data is collected on a per contract basis and forms the base dataset for this analysis. It contains personal information regarding individual contributors, such as sex, date of birth, marital status as well as a cumulative total of PRSA contributions, current PRSA assets value, value of transfers, and other technical information.
The Revenue Commissioners’ PAYE Modernisation (PMOD) dataset contains payslip level data for persons in employment from 2019 onwards.
The annual self-assessed income tax return form is called Form 11. Self-assessed taxpayers are self-employed individuals and/or individuals with non-PAYE income. Due to the nature of self-assessment, data for a calendar year is only complete three years after the reference year. This limits the analysis of self-employed PRSA contributors in this release to a maximum year of 2022.
The Central Records System (CRS) of the Department of Social Protection is a central repository of person-level data for the normally resident population who pay tax; claim Social Welfare benefit or assistance; claim child benefit or receive a contributory or non-contributory pension. CRS provides personal information such as age, sex, and nationality.
The CSO's Central Business Register (CBR) is a register of all economic enterprises in Ireland. The CBR integrates administrative data, survey data, and large enterprise profiling work. It also includes a link between Enterprise Number (common to PMOD) and business size indicator. The CBR provides the statistical units as recommended in Eurostat’s “Business Register Recommendations Manual" and the UNECE's “Guideline on Statistical Business Registers 2” as well as Regulation (EC) No 177/20083.
It is possible for individuals to have multiple PRSA contracts (either standard, non-standard, or both) at the same time. As the analysis in this publication is presented at the per person and PRSA type level, a contributor is defined as a unique combination of PIK and PRSA type. Where an individual PIK is associated with multiple contracts of the same PRSA type, the assets value and contributions of each contract of that type are summed and the earliest start date is taken. If a person has both types of PRSA they will be counted as two separate contributors. The percentage of individuals with both types of PRSA is between 2% to 3% per year.
PRSA Schedule B returns contain total contributions since the start of the PRSA contract. Contributions can come from several sources; contributors themselves, employers, other Irish pension funds, other PRSAs, or pensions arrangements outside the state. If the total contributions increase from one year to the next, then the contributor is categorised as having made a contribution that year. Analysis on contributions compared with previous years is available from 2020 onwards.
The economic sector classification (NACE) is based on the ‘Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community, Rev. 2 (2008)'
Further details can be found on the Eurostat website: Eurostat NACE 2 Classification
There are two types of PRSA: standard, and non-standard. The main differences between them concern charges and investment options. A standard PRSA has maximum charges of 5% on contributions paid and 1% per year on the total assets value, and can only be invested in pooled funds (pooled funds are collective investment schemes in which investors’ money is pooled to buy a portfolio of assets, including government bonds, deposits, property and stocks). A non-standard PRSA does not have maximum limits on charges and allows investments in funds other than pooled funds.
Further information can be found in the Pension's Authority Consumer and Employers’ Guide to PRSAs.
The PRSA Schedule B Data contains 98.5% valid and 1.5% invalid PPSNs. The invalid PPSNs are converted to invalid PIKs, which cannot be linked to other administrative data sources. PRSA contributors with invalid PIKs are excluded from analysis on Nationality, PAYE Employees, and Self-Employment.
The calculation of weekly pay is based on the Revenue Commissioners PAYE Modernisation (PMOD) dataset. It is calculated on a per employment basis equal to the total annual gross earnings (excluding employer benefits such as benefits in kind or pension contributions) divided by the number of weeks worked in that employment each year. Employments earning less than €500 per annum or lasting for less than 2 weeks are excluded from the calculation, as are secondary employments earning less than €4,000 annually. It is possible for a single contributor to have multiple employments in a single year. For PRSA contributors between 86% and 89% of employees had a single employment in each year, and 98% had less than 3 employments in a single year.
PRSA Schedule B data is submitted to the Pensions Authority on a quarterly basis and contains a start and end date (if applicable) for all contracts active at any stage during the quarter. Contracts that were terminated during the reporting quarter are excluded from the analysis of that particular quarter, as are a small number of contracts with missing start dates. The effect of this on the total assets value each year is in table 7.1, and the effect on number of contributors each year is in table 7.2.
| Table 7.1: Relative total assets value included in analysis after removal of terminated contracts and missing start dates | ||||||
| Year | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Relative total assets value | 99.4% | 99.6% | 99.6% | 99.3% | 99.5% | 99.2% |
| Table 7.2: Relative number of contributors included in analysis after removal of terminated contracts and missing start dates | ||||||
| Year | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Relative number of contributors | 99.1% | 99.2% | 99.2% | 99.2% | 99.3% | 99.1% |
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