The gov.ie update on the Pensions Improvement Programme offers an important snapshot of how Ireland is modernising pension administration across the Education and Training Board sector. Published by the Department of Education and Youth, the latest progress report shows how the programme is tackling long-standing compliance, payroll and reporting issues while improving pension services for active staff, former members and retirees.
Led by the Education Shared Business Service (ESBS) since 2022, the Pensions Improvement Programme was created to strengthen legislative compliance for ETB pension arrangements. The work affects three core groups: current pensionable ETB staff making contributions, former members with retirement entitlements, and pensioners already receiving benefits. In practical terms, this means improving how pension contributions are calculated, how benefit records are maintained, and how future pension statements are delivered.
Pensions Improvement Programme targets pension compliance and digital delivery
According to the update, ESBS now manages 31,619 active pensionable payees on payroll who are contributing to pension schemes, alongside 10,398 active pensioners receiving pension payments. The scale of that responsibility helps explain why the Pensions Improvement Programme has become such a significant administrative reform project within the wider Irish public service landscape, alongside bodies such as the Revenue Commissioners, the Health Service Executive (HSE) and the National Shared Services Office.
The main issues identified across the ETB sector included:
- incorrect or inconsistent pension contribution calculations
- referable amount calculations under the Single Public Sector pension scheme
- delays in pension benefit and leaver statements
- backlogs in Single Pension Scheme databank uploads
- manual application of pension increases for ETB pensioners
To address these gaps, dedicated project teams were set up, with ESBS working alongside software providers and ETBs to improve both data quality and system performance.
Key progress reported so far
The update outlines measurable progress across several workstreams. Payroll software has been upgraded and tested so that correct pension contributions are now being calculated for more than 95% of members each pay period. ESBS also introduced checking reports to identify errors quickly and escalate them to the relevant stakeholders.
For Single Public Sector scheme compliance, a dedicated programme was developed to calculate referable amounts for all 16 ETBs. Meanwhile, statement production has accelerated significantly, with 53,377 pension benefit statements and 19,918 leaver statements prepared for issue. ETBs also received their 2025 statements by 30 June 2026, apart from a small number of more complex cases still being completed.
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How automation is changing ETB pension administration
One of the most notable features of the Pensions Improvement Programme is the shift toward automation. ESBS developed reports to calculate service history for part-time hourly teachers and tutors, and a BOT entered 8,109 lines of validated data into the pension module for legacy scheme members. This is expected to improve the accuracy and speed of pension benefit statement generation.
In parallel, ESBS uploaded 208 membership files, 204 beneficiary files and 208 purchase and transfer files to the SPS Databank for the years 2013 to 2025. The remaining 2025 beneficiary files are expected by the 30 September 2026 deadline.
The programme also supported pensioner payroll reform. Following data cleansing and pensioner configuration work with the National Shared Services Office, ESBS migrated more than 9,000 pensioners from NSSO systems and now pays 10,398 ETB pensioners directly. That matters because it allows pension increases to be applied more efficiently and consistently, replacing a manual case-by-case model with a standardised digital process. This approach reflects the broader modernisation seen across Irish public bodies in areas including Public Expenditure, Social Protection and Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
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What happens next
Once the remaining SPS and service history work is finished, ETB members are expected to be able to generate automated pension benefit statements directly through their portal accounts at any time. Annual databank reporting should also become more streamlined, with automated reports available for upload each year.
Overall, the Pensions Improvement Programme marks a substantial step in improving transparency, compliance and service delivery in education pensions. For staff, former members and retirees, the big takeaway is clear: the Pensions Improvement Programme is moving ETB pension administration toward a more accurate, digital and user-friendly future.
Article/Image Courtesy: gov.ie
