Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I will not be accepting this amendment.

The overall objective of My Future Fund is pension adequacy. It is vital in that context that participation and retention rates in My Future Fund remain high.

As with other aspects of the design of My Future Fund, there is a spectrum of potential and possible arrangements here. At one end of the spectrum, you could allow opt-out immediately after enrolment, as is proposed by the Deputy's amendment and as is the case in the United Kingdom, and at the other end of the spectrum, you could follow the approach in Australia which does not allow people to opt out at all. These are extremes of the spectrum and what we have tried with this design, in learning from what has happened across the world in other systems, is to achieve a middle course.

I believe that the six-month mandatory participation period is sufficiently long that will allow members to see the value of their personal contribution. It is really important that everybody knows that it is their money. It is not Government money; it is not NAERSA's money; it is Louise's money, Catherine's money or Mark's money. It is important that the time is sufficiently long to allow them see their personal contribution accumulate and allow them see their employers' contribution and the State contribution go in. They will have the opportunity to see that through the My Future Fund app. They will see that their employer is topping up their contribution, that the State is also topping up and that their €3 that goes in becomes €7. The longer they save they will see that for real.

The provision of an opt-out in subparagraph (e) differs from mandatory pension schemes. It provides an opportunity for people to exercise some degree of choice in relation to the membership of the scheme.

Coming back to the international experience, which has been crucial to the design of My Future Fund, that international experience demonstrates why the opportunities to opt out of a pension scheme even at an early stage risk defeating our underlying objectives here and that would undermine the policy objective of ensuring an adequate income in retirement. In line with the analysis from the OECD, we have an opt-out period of only two months in the Irish automatic enrolment system. I am satisfied that in making an opt-out available, a balance is provided with the objectives and also maintaining an individual's freedom to make choices in relation to their retirement savings.