Ireland’s minister for social protection, Dara Calleary, has reaffirmed that the country’s long-delayed automatic enrolment system will launch on 1 January 2026.
Speaking at The Pensions Authority Conference in Dublin this week, Calleary said: “Auto-enrolment is happening at long last, after 20 years. My Future Fund is our name around it, and that will commence from 1 January.”
The system, branded ‘My Future Fund’, will be administered by the National Auto Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority (NAERSA), which is expected to be operational “in the next few weeks”.
Dermot Griffin has been appointed chief executive officer and Roma Burke chair.
The Department for Social Protection (DSP) had previously set a 30 September 2025 start date, before pushing the launch back to 1 January 2026.
Calleary acknowledged scepticism in the industry after several postponements but insisted: “This show is arriving and it will happen this year.”
He highlighted progress made over the summer, including contracts awarded to Irish Life Investment, Amundi and BlackRock to manage assets for the new scheme.
Calleary said preparations were advancing on multiple fronts, including weekly meetings with Revenue and the Payroll and Software Development Association to resolve IT issues, as well as ongoing engagement with employers of all sizes.
The minister pointed to 1 December as a “key date” when the portal for employers goes live, allowing them to submit information required to meet statutory obligations under the auto-enrolment act.
“We are working incredibly hard to minimise the administrative burden for employers of all sizes and soon the administrative fees per employer will be nil,” he said.
He added that the next phase of communications would be “more hard-hitting, more bringing [the message] home to people”, with the upcoming Budget on 7 October set to feature My Future Fund as a “major part” of the government’s update.
“My Future Fund will be transformative. Its implementation is about getting people to save for their retirement earlier and to support them in doing that,” Calleary said.
Read the digital edition of IPE’s latest magazine
