Trustees at an Irish Association of Pension Funds (IAPF) seminar on Monday engaged in what one attendee called an "animated" discussion with Pensions Board representatives after they gave presentations on the new Trusteeship Report and proposed on-the-spot fines for regulatory violations.

Trustees were seeking reassurances that the mooted 2,000 fines, which are expected to come into force in September of this year, would be applied with reasonable discretion and not too stringently, according to IAPF chairman Joe Byrne. Trustees are personally liable for any violations of the Pensions Act, which means fines would come out of their own pockets and would not come out of the pension funds themselves.

"Obviously compliance has improve, but there was a lot of concern about traps you could fall into, " he said. "The question is how much latitude there will be. We don't think it will be like the clampers, but it would be a serious disincentive if the industry was run that way."

Up until this point in time within the pensions industry, according to Byrne, minor involuntary breaches of the regulations . . . such as late submissions of paperwork or missing sign-off deadlines . . . were rarely punished. Trustees are concerned now that even accidental violations will attract crippling financial penalties.

"A rigid application is not necessarily in the best interests of pension plans, " Byrne said. "If the regulation is too rigid, people might not voluntarily come forward when there are problems."

Head of information for the Pensions Board Mary Hutch acknowledged that trusteeship could be "onerous", but argued that trusteeship was also fulfilling. She said the board had "always endeavoured to support trustees in compliance", but that it had to make sure members' interests were protected.

"Administration standards aren't as high as they should be, " she admitted in conclusion.