Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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880. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection when the National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority will conclude an information-sharing agreement with Revenue under section 108 of the Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Act 2024; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29058/25]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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881. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if automatic enrolment will be made available to all eligible employers and employees immediately on 1 January 2026; if not, the specific timing of the phase roll-out of automatic enrolment, either by employer or employee characteristics or any other such criteria; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29059/25]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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892. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection on what date will the National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority come into existence as a legal entity. [29344/25]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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897. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection when will the National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority submit a business plan to him. [29404/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 880, 881, 892 and 897 together.

The Programme for Government contains a commitment to introduce the Automatic Enrolment (AE) Retirement Savings System. The aim of introducing AE is to address the pension coverage gap that exists in Ireland and to provide workers with greater comfort and security regarding their retirement savings.

The new system will be called 'My Future Fund'. It will automatically enroll all employees, aged between 23 and 60 years of age, who are earning €20,000 or above a year (across all employments), and who are not actively contributing to a supplementary pension scheme through their employer's payroll. Those who fall outside the age and earnings thresholds – in other words, those aged between 18 and 22 or between 60 and 66, or who earn below €20,000, will be able to join the new retirement savings system by voluntarily opting in if they wish to do so.

Implementation of 'My Future Fund' is well underway with progress being made across several workstreams. The Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Act 2024 ('the Act'), which provides the legislative framework for the system, was enacted last year. Also last year, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), became the contracted administrator for the new scheme following a procurement competition. TCS have been working with the Department of Social Protection, the Revenue Commissioners and with payroll software developers to build the necessary ICT and operational systems.

Following a further procurement exercise, three preferred bidders have been selected to provide investment management services to the National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority (NAERSA), which is the statutory body with responsibility for administering the system in the best interests of AE participants. Contracts are expected to be signed with those bidders later this summer.

Also at an advanced stage is the recruitment of a senior management team and Board of NAERSA, with a number of positions, including that of Chief Executive, being advertised on the 'publicjobs' platform. In advance of NAERSA's formal establishment later this year, the Authority is operating on an administrative basis within the Department of Social Protection. Any ancillary matters such as the annual plan under Section 38 of the Act (which the Deputy refers to as the 'business plan'), or the information-sharing arrangements under Section 108 of the Act, will be settled well in advance of launch. The Department has a long-standing data sharing arrangement with the Revenue Commissioners, which will be adapted to include NAERSA in due course.

I recently announced that the collection of contributions for 'My Future Fund' has been rescheduled to 1st January 2026. This allows an additional three-month lead-in time for payroll providers, especially smaller providers, to ready their systems for the launch. It also aligns the system with with the standard tax year. From that date onwards, over 800,000 eligible employees are expected to be enrolled.

I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.