Ireland will roll out the auto-enrolment (AE) pension scheme on September 30, 2025, confirmed Heather Humphreys, the minister for social protection.
She further said the full details of the scheme would be revealed in the Budget on October 1. “People will have more money, more comfort in their retirement. It’s good for the economy, good for businesses, and good for society,” she was quoted as saying by RTE.
The minister’s remarks come after the organisers of Pension Awareness Week 2024 called on the government to provide clarity to businesses around the implemention of the AE scheme.
The scheme will automatically add 800,000 workers into a private pension scheme, in addition to their state pension.
Under the AE scheme, all employees not already in an occupational or equivalent pension scheme, aged between 23 and 60, and earning over €20,000 across all of their employments, will be automatically enrolled.
Workers and their employers will each initially pay 1.5 per cent of a person’s gross salary into the plan. This will increase to 3 per cent from year four before jumping to 4.5 per cent in year seven and 6 per cent from year 10.
Ireland remains the only country in the OECD that does not operate AE or a similar system to promote pension savings.