Auto-enrolment is live: what My Future Fund means for Irish employers

Ireland’s long-awaited pension auto-enrolment scheme, branded My Future Fund, went live on 1 January 2026, run by the new National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority (NAERSA). It ends Ireland’s position as the only OECD country without an automatic workplace pension. For employers, it is now a live payroll and compliance obligation rather than a future policy change.

Who is enrolled

Employees are automatically enrolled where they are aged 23 to 60, earning more than €20,000 a year, and not already paying into a workplace pension through payroll. Eligibility is checked on a rolling 13-week basis, so a new or part-time worker who earns €5,000 or more in any 13-week period can become eligible. Enrolment is automatic — there is no opt-in step for the employee.

Anyone already contributing to a qualifying arrangement — an occupational scheme or a PRSA funded through payroll — is exempt and stays as they are.

What it costs

Contributions are phased in over a decade:

• Years 1–3: employee 1.5% + employer 1.5% + State 0.5%
• Rising every three years, reaching employee 6% + employer 6% + State 2% by year 10

Employer and State contributions are matched on earnings up to €80,000. Employees can opt out only in months 6–8 (with a refund of their own contributions) and are automatically re-enrolled roughly every two years if still eligible.

What employers should do now

Confirm your payroll system is connected to the NAERSA portal, identify which of your people are in scope, and decide deliberately whether to bring eligible staff into an existing occupational scheme or let them default into My Future Fund. The two routes have different cost, tax-relief and flexibility profiles — auto-enrolment contributions don’t attract income-tax relief in the same way occupational and PRSA contributions do, which matters for higher earners.

If you’d like a side-by-side of running a qualifying scheme versus relying on auto-enrolment for your workforce, that’s exactly the kind of design question we help employers work through.