Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this. The issue of auto-enrolment is at an advanced stage. I have brought proposals to a Cabinet subcommittee and I intend to bring final proposals to the Government very shortly. As the Deputy knows, the programme for Government commits to introducing a pension automatic enrolment system. It is a priority for me. I want to see this introduced. Only 35% of private sector employees have a pension. The fear is that when they reach retirement they will have a reduction in living standards. I will bring proposals to the Government or Cabinet very shortly to finalise the design of the auto-enrolment.

I can give some information on it. We will seek to gradually deliver an auto-enrolment system based on following principles: a phased roll-out over a decade of the contributions made by workers and employers; matching contributions by both workers and employers; and the State to top up these contributions. It will not come from the Social Insurance Fund because that is the fund into which workers make PRSI contributions. There will be an opt-out provision for those who choose to opt out. Workers will have a range of retirement savings products to choose from and a charges cap will be imposed on pension providers.

My Department has finalised a proposal for Government on the overall design of the scheme and, as I said, I intend to bring that for approval very soon. Once the final design is agreed, it is intended that the necessary legislative organisation and process structures for implementation will follow over the course of this year and next year. They were set out in the economic recovery plan in 2021. That is the plan on the auto-enrolment. There is no doubt that Covid has delayed it but it is my intention to bring it forward very soon.

We committed in the programme for Government that we would establish an independent expert Commission on Pensions, which is what we did. It was chaired by Ms Josephine Feehily. The commission worked very hard for six months, as the Deputy knows. Its countless meetings produced for Government a very detailed and in-depth report and recommendations. It was based on a lot of data. There were economists, academics, pension experts, union representatives, youth representatives and representatives of older people. I took that report to Government last October. The joint committee has published its report on the future of pensions. The Commission on Taxation and Welfare is due to come back with its views by the end of February.

We will then look at all of this in the round and, through the Cabinet committee on economy recovery and investment, the Ministers for Public Expenditure and Reform and Finance, the three party leaders and I will plot a way forward. The intention is that we will bring a full response and implementation plan to the Commission on Pension's recommendations to Government for approval by the end of March. The Deputy will appreciate that there are some very difficult decisions to be made and this Government needs to make those decisions. We need to push on with auto-enrolment and make decisions on the sustainability of the pension system. The social welfare code is the bedrock of the pension system and we need to look at it. There are four and a half people working at the minute for every pensioner. By 2050, there will only be two people working for every one pensioner. Therefore, the system we have is not sustainable and there is no getting away from that. It is not a problem unique to Ireland. Countries all over the world are grappling with the same issue. As I said, there are some difficult decisions to be made and, as a Government, we will do that. At the end of the day, the interest of our citizens is our priority in making those decisions and ensuring they are to their benefit.