Council Members

Council Member	Member Information
Roma Burke Chairperson	Roma is a Chartered Director, Consulting Actuary and Partner with Lane Clark & Peacock Ireland Ltd. She is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries in Ireland and is the past Chairperson of the Society’s Pensions Committee (2016-2018) and a past Council Member of the Society (2016-2019). She also holds an MA from Trinity College Dublin and is a Qualified Financial Adviser.
Deirdre Cummins	Deirdre is an Of Counsel with Arthur Cox specialising in pensions and benefits law. Deirdre has over 15 years’ experience as a solicitor in private practice advising on all aspects of Irish pension arrangements both in the private and public sectors. Deirdre is a member and a former Chairman of The Association of Pension Lawyers in Ireland (APLI) and is a member of the International Pension and Employee Benefits Lawyers Association (IPEBLA). Deirdre has lectured on the Law Society Certificate Course in Pension Law and Practice and has tutored on pensions and related matters on the professional courses of the Law Society.
Olive Gaughan	Olive is an actuary and non-executive director in the Financial Services sector. She has worked for over 30 years in the life insurance industry and so has first-hand knowledge and experience of life insurance solutions for pension savings and associated risk management. She has a keen interest in the consumer and has been heavily engaged in work on the topic of “Policyholders Reasonable Expectations” with the Society of Actuaries in Ireland.
Stephen Gillick	Stephen is a Partner and Head of Pensions in Mason Hayes and Curran’s Employment Law and Benefits team. He has extensive experience in advising trustees, sponsoring employers and pension providers on a range of issues, including pension scheme establishment and restructuring, pensions specific data privacy advice, pension scheme funding and de-risking exercises. Stephen is a member of several industry bodies in addition to his membership of the Pensions Council.
Brendan Kennedy	Brendan Kennedy is the Irish Pensions Regulator and chief executive of the Pensions Authority, which is the Irish statutory body responsible for regulating pensions and for providing pension policy advice to the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection. He has held this position since 2006.
Ciara McLoughlin	Ciara McLoughlin is a Consultant on the pensions team at William Fry LLP and she has a wealth of experience advising trustees and employers on pensions aspects of corporate M&A transactions, carrying out due diligence and advising on potential issues and solutions where pension liabilities may arise. She advises on the day-to-day management and administration of schemes including: scheme documentation amendments and benefit design, funding arrangements, liability management exercises such as buy-ins, winding up of schemes, GDPR implementation and pension disputes. She is the Chairperson of the Association of Pension Lawyers of Ireland, a qualified pension trustee, a member of the UK APL and has an understanding of UK pensions law after practising there for a number of years.
Patrick Moran	Patrick is the representative from the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform.
Munro O’Dwyer	Munro is a Partner at PwC Ireland. Munro qualified as an actuary in 2000 and has worked on a number of Society of Actuaries working parties. He works with organisations around non-salary aspects of their remuneration arrangements, including how to maximise the value of the pension arrangements that are provided and supporting employers to develop financial wellness strategies across their employee population. Munro supports a range of defined benefit, defined contribution and individual pension arrangements, and his focus is on action-oriented advice, that seeks to deliver better outcomes for stakeholders, in a risk-controlled manner. Munro provides support to corporate trustee clients, helping them to independently assess all aspects of pension arrangements that they have in place, from administration and investment effectiveness, through to member engagement and satisfaction. Munro works directly with Boards, NEDs and management committees tasked with overseeing the development and implementation of a pension and financial wellness strategy and the delivery of change where necessary.
Joanne Roche	Joanne is a pensions actuary and Director with KPMG. She has specialised in pensions for 20+ years and works on a wide variety of pension issues across the public and private sector. She co-authored the report into the actuarial review of the Social Insurance Fund in 2022, 2017 and 2012 on behalf of the Department of Social Protection. Joanne has a keen interest in ensuring the concerns of all stakeholders are reflected in pension solutions with a particular focus on the ultimate beneficiaries.
Grace von Offenberg Sweeney	Grace leads the Domestic and Actuarial Supervision Division in the Insurance Directorate of the Central Bank. She has over 20 years insurance experience across General Insurance and Life and Pensions sectors. She represents the Central Bank at the EU EIOPA risk and Financial Stability Committee and the Financial Industry Forum Domestic & Innovation subgroups. She joined the Central Bank in 2013 to lead the Actuarial Function within the Insurance Directorate. Previous to the Central Bank, she worked in industry for 12 years in a variety of actuarial and senior finance executive roles, including Head of Finance Europe, Head of Group Internal Audit, Investment and Pricing Actuarial roles. She is a fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, having qualified in the General Insurance field.
Colum Walsh	Colum is the representative from the Department of Social Protection.