A company signed up with one of Ireland’s largest private sector pension schemes has been convicted and fined in a prosecution brought by the Pensions Authority.

The regulator this week announced that a district court last week convicted Rock Solution Options, a precision drilling, blasting and rock splitting company, for failing to comply with a statutory request it had made.

The regulator had sought information and documentation detailing deductions made from employees’ wages for contributions and payments to the trustee of the pension scheme, the Construction Workers’ Pension Scheme, as a result of allegations that the money was not being paid across to the trustee.

The company was fined €4,000 and the two directors of the company at the time the request was issued were also convicted and fined €5,000 each.

Brendan Kennedy, chief executive officer at the Pensions Authority, said: “This conviction should act as a warning to all employers and company directors that the Pensions Authority treats a failure to respond to a request for information by the authority very seriously.

“The authority has a responsibility to enforce this requirement and regards non-compliance as a serious matter.”

In Ireland companies operating in the construction sector have to enrol employees with the Construction Workers’ Pension Scheme unless they find a better alternative scheme. The construction industry in Ireland was badly hit by the financial crisis in the late 2000s.

As at the end of 2018, more than 7,000 employers were adhering members of the scheme, according to its latest annual report. It had €1.5bn in assets under management.

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