Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

The position is that automatic enrolment is a legal requirement. Therefore, the employers will have to give access to My Future Fund to employees aged between 23 and 60 and earning over €20,000 who do not have an existing payroll-connected pension.

We have made it very clear in the Department that this is happening. The point has been made at official level, including to the Department of public expenditure, that this is happening on 1 January and that people need to make provision. We have also made the point to all employers across the State.

We have worked closely with groups such as ICTU in relation to this. I attended a really good seminar with ICTU a few weeks ago, on 23 October. ICTU is fully behind this and is very aware of it. In fact, it was very frustrated that we did not introduce this in September. It has been engaging with its members across the country to get ready for it.

I want to make it very clear that this is not an opt-in for employers, regardless of who they are. If there is an employee who fulfils the criteria and who is not linked through payroll to a pension at the moment, he or she will be covered.

See this speech in context