Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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107. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he will provide an update on the introduction of auto-enrolment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62054/25]

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. The implementation of My Future Fund will pave the way for around 7500,000 workers to be brought into a retirement savings scheme for the first time and I look forward to its implementation.

Implementation of 'My Future Fund' is well advanced. In recent weeks the National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority (NAERSA), has been established under the aegis of my Department to run the new scheme. This new body is based in Letterkenny, Co. Donegal. Additionally, the Board and Chief Executive are now in place and staff recruitment is ongoing so as to ensure that the personnel is in place to perform the functions of the Authority.

Great progress has also been made across several other workstreams and with multiple stakeholders, including with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which is the managed service provider contracted to administer the system; with the the Revenue Commissioners, on whose payroll-related data NAERSA will determine eligibility; with Payroll Software Developers who are modifying their systems to calculate and deduct My Future Fund contributions and report on those to NAERSA, and with 3 different investment managers (Amundi, Blackrock and Irish Life Investment Managers) who will invest these contributions in accordance with rules set out in the legislation.

Parallel to these workstreams, a three-phased communications strategy continues to be rolled out. Over the summer we concentrated on raising employee/participant awareness with the ice-cream advertisement over the full range of media platforms. The current focus is on increasing awareness 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. Additional campaigns targeted at employers and employees will be run in the coming months in advance of the launch in January 2026, and for some time afterwards as well. An information hub with several useful resources exists at www.gov.ie/autoenrolment.

I hope this clarifies matters for the Deputy.