Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy. I take this opportunity to wish him well. I look forward to working with him. This is his first time attending parliamentary questions as his party's spokesperson for social protection.

We will introduce automatic enrolment, My Future Fund, from 1 January 2026.

The aim is to address the pension coverage gap that exists in our country and to provide workers with greater comfort and security regarding their retirement income.

There will be two separate fee elements.  First, there will be an administration fee, which will cover the collection of contributions, the allocation to the investment plans and the provision of account management services.  Second, there will be a separate fee for investment management services. The administration fees associated with automatic enrolment are under active consideration as we speak and will be finalised following consultation with the new chief executive of the National Auto-Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority, NAERSA, and the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Services Reform and Digitalisation. I have written to the Minister this week in relation to this issue.

As previously announced, the administration fee will take the form of a flat weekly fee rather than a commission based on a percentage of funds under management.  In this way, the administration fee will reflect the actual costs of administration, which do not vary with fund size. They will be the same for all participants regardless of their income or the size of their retirement fund and will, ultimately, provide much better value for money for the participant over the course of a standard retirement planning horizon.

In addition to administration fees, there will be some fees for investment management services.  These services have been procured through a competitive procurement process conducted under EU rules. That tendering process required fees to be less than 0.1% of assets under management.  In this regard, I can confirm that the prices attached to the bids were significantly below the maximum ceiling and represent very good value for participants.

I am committed to ensuring that the fees in My Future Fund are kept low and that they are transparent, accessible and understandable, especially as the prospective participants in the system will be lower- and medium-income earners.

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