Tony McCormack (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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155. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the means by which his Department is assisting businesses to plan for auto-enrolment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32981/25]

Tony McCormack (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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178. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection for an update on the introduction of the automatic enrolment retirement savings system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32980/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 155 and 178 together.

The Programme for Government contains a commitment to introduce the Automatic Enrolment (AE) Retirement Savings System. The legislative basis for implementing the new system was enacted last July. I recently announced the system will commence from 1st January 2026.

Implementation of AE is well underway with progress being made across several workstreams. A new public body called the National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority (NAERSA) is being established under the aegis of the Department of Social Protection to run the new scheme. A number of senior executive positions, including the CEO, as well as the positions of members of NAERSA’s board are on track to be filled by Q3 of this year at the latest.

A contract was signed on 9th October 2024 with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for the provision of a managed service to operate the administration of the AE system.

Separately, the evaluation of responses to the tendering exercise for three investment management firms, who will invest the contributions of participants, has recently been completed. It is expected that contracts will be awarded to the preferred bidders by the end of Q2 or early Q3.

Parallel to these workstreams, a three-phased communications strategy continues to be rolled out, with the current focus being on awareness raising with employers. Over 10,000 employers and related professionals in HR and payroll have been directly reached through webinars, conferences and in person stakeholder meetings. In addition, employers have been targeted through radio, digital audio and print ads, pointing them to the automatic enrolment website hub (www.gov.ie/autoenrolment), which contains an array of employer-focused resources. The second phase of the strategy commences this summer with the launch of an advertising campaign on multiple media platforms, which will include an employer-specific aspect to the campaign.

I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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156. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he is aware that employers are not obligated to make pension contributions during unpaid maternity leave unless stipulated in the employment contract; if he is aware of the hardship this incurs on new mothers and parents later in life; if he plans to address the issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33105/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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My Department has no role in setting the rules for payment of contributions under occupational pension schemes or pension products or for contractual terms in respect of unpaid maternity leave.

During a period of qualifying maternity absence, occupational pension schemes are required to ensure that a member:

• continues in membership of the scheme, and

• continues to accrue rights under the scheme,

during any period of qualifying maternity absence in the same manner as if she were at work and being paid normally during that period.

There is no obligation to pay an employee or provide them with pension benefits during any period of maternity absence which is not a qualifying maternity absence.

Nothing in the Pensions Act, 1990 (as amended) prevents an occupational pension scheme from providing special, more favourable treatment for women in connection with pregnancy or childbirth or makes unlawful any act done in compliance with the Maternity Protection Acts 1994 to 2022 or the Adoptive Leave Acts, 1995 and 2005.

Scheme rules can also provide for members to purchase additional service for periods where there is a break in reckonable service.

Therefore, the rules of the occupational pension scheme and the contract of employment will determine whether contributions are payable in respect of periods of unpaid maternity leave.

Where a person is a contributor to a personal pension product such as a PRSA or makes Additional Voluntary Contributions in their own right and not through their employer, it may be possible for the person to continue to make individual contributions during any periods of unpaid leave subject to any Revenue rules that apply in relation to tax relief.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.