Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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720. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to confirm the project's public spending code stage gates and sanctioning approvals, including any value-for-money assessments comparing in-house build versus managed service; and to publish the value-for-money report. [48749/25]

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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760. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the final contract value, term, and reference number for the managed service contract awarded to a company (details supplied) for the My Future Fund auto-enrolment scheme; the names of all bidders and the evaluation weighting applied; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48582/25]

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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761. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to publish the contract, KPI schedule, service-credit regime, and termination/step-in clauses for the My Future Fund administration contract, subject to necessary redactions; and to outline the independent assurance in place before go-live. [48583/25]

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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764. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the revised timeline to contributions from 1 January 2026, key readiness milestones, results of end-to-end testing, and contingency plans if payroll integration or employer onboarding falls behind. [48586/25]

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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767. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection to quantify the budgeted and actual spend to date on the My Future Fund, by line item (details supplied); and the cost impacts from the 2025 reschedule to 2026. [48589/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 720, 760, 761, 764 and 767 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 income. The new system - to be known as My Future Fund - will commence from 1st January 2026.

In line with Government decisions and taking into account requirements of the Public Spending Code, my Department undertook a tender process to procure a fully outsourced managed service to administer My Future Fund. This includes the design, build, customisation, testing, implementation, delivery, ongoing support and maintenance of the operational system for My Future Fund. This procurement process was carried out to ensure that the My Future Fund will be administered efficiently and effectively with the required expertise.

The procurement process was conducted on multi-stage basis commencing with a Prior Information Notice (PIN ) to notify the market of the competition. This stage was followed by a Pre-Qualification Questionnaire which issued to the market and resulted in successful shortlisted candidates moving to the next stage, the Request for Tender. The Request for Tender contained detailed requirements and critical success factors to ensure value for money for the State and participants of the scheme. The two companies that were invited to submit tenders were Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Accenture.

On 9th October 2024, TCS signed a contract for the provision of a managed service to operate the administration of My Future Fund. TCS will work under contract to the National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority (NAERSA), which is in the process of being established to administer and regulate the AE retirement savings system on behalf of its participants. Pending the establishment of NAERSA, my Department is working closely with TCS to operationalise and deliver My Future Fund. The contract with TCS was developed in consultation with the Offices of the Chief State Solicitor and the Attorney General and includes key milestones and extensive service level agreements which must be met by the managed service provider for the duration of the term. While specific contractual arrangements cannot be published as these terms and conditions are commercially sensitive, the overall value of the contract is expected to be in the region of €150 million over 15 years, which includes the system implementation costs.

Earlier this year, I announced the rescheduling of implementation of the AE system to 1st January 2026. Subsequently, the Department agreed with the managed service provider a revised set of key milestones and the respective deliverables pertaining to each milestone to align with the rescheduled date. This includes a rescheduling of all elements of the project plans and key stakeholder engagement plans to assist in meeting the commencement date. In addition, the availability of an employer portal for employers to register from December 1st has been agreed.

Testing of the entire system and all integrations is ongoing as with any technical project. Automated payroll notifications for processing by payroll providers will issue in early December 2025 to facilitate any future dated payroll run for 2026. A manual facility on the employer portal will also facilitate administration of AE for those who do not use payroll or if their payroll provider integration falls behind.

Finally with regard to the request for details on the implementation costs, the estimated cost of NAERSA is expected to be in the region of €10 million per annum, which includes staffing and overhead costs. The estimated cost of building, configuring and implementing the necessary systems is estimated at just over 15 million. In addition, a budget of €2.5 million has been allocated to support the communications campaign, which includes engagement with employer organisations. No separate funding has been provided for employer supports. Up to date actual spend figures are not yet available.

I hope this clarifies matters for the Deputy.