Joanna Byrne (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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1360. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the current processing times for disability allowance, carer's allowance and social welfare appeals; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45494/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible.

Processing times vary across schemes, depending on the differing eligibility criteria. Schemes that require a high level of documentary evidence from the customer, particularly in the case of illness-related schemes, can take longer to process. Similarly, means-tested schemes can also require more detailed investigations and interaction with the customer, thereby lengthening the decision-making process.

The average number of weeks to award a Disability Allowance claim and a Carer's Allowance claim at the end of July 2025 was 6 weeks.

The current average processing time is 24.9 weeks for Disability Allowance appeals and 19.7 weeks for Carer's Allowance appeals. The overall average processing time for all appeals to the end of second quarter 2025 is 21.9 weeks.

My Department understands the many pressures faced by people and always seeks to ensure that claims are processed quickly and efficiently.

Martin Daly (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
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1361. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the commencement date for the Auto-Enrolment Retirement Savings Scheme in view of previous deferrals; and if he will clarify whether it remains the case that the scheme will begin on 1 January 2026. [45520/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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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 income. The new system - to be known as My Future Fund - will commence from 1 January 2026.

My Future Fund will automatically enroll all employees, aged between 23 and 60 years of age, who are earning €20,000 or more per year (across all employments), and who are not actively contributing to a supplementary pension scheme through their employer's payroll. It is estimated that approx. three-quarters of a million people will be automatically enrolled when the scheme launches on this basis. Those who fall outside the age and earnings threshold - 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 My Future Fund by voluntarily opting in.

Contributions into 'My Future Fund' will be made by the employee and matched by their employer. In addition, the State will top-up participants' funds at the rate of €1 for every €3 that the employee contributes. Contributions will then be invested with participants offered three savings options to choose at higher, medium and lower risk levels. A default investment strategy will be available for those who prefer not to choose. Finally, drawdown will be aligned with the State Pension age of 66.

Implementation of 'My Future Fund' is well underway. Most recently I announced the names of the members of the Board and the Chief Executive Officer of the National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority (NAERSA), which is being established under the aegis of my Department to run the new scheme.

In addition, great progress has been made across several workstreams with multiple stakeholders to administer the system, to integrate with Revenue and individual payroll systems in determining eligibility and calculating contributions, to transfer contributions for investment, and to provide employee and employer access to services digitally.

Parallel to these workstreams, a three-phased communications strategy continues to be rolled out, with the current focus being on awareness raising with employers. Thousands of employers and related professionals in HR and payroll have been directly reached through webinars, conferences and in person stakeholder meetings in recent months. The second phase of the strategy commenced this summer with the launch of an advertising campaign on multiple media platforms. Additional campaigns targeted at employers and employees will be run before and after the launch in January 2026.