Publication
Auto-enrolment: Your questions answered
From Department of Social Protection
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Social Protection
Published on
Last updated on
Auto-enrolment is a new retirement savings scheme which people will automatically be enrolled in once they meet certain requirements. It has been set up to provide a retirement plan for people without a work or private pension to save for retirement.
There are two main reasons:
Auto-enrolment will begin on 30 September 2025.
You must meet these conditions to be automatically enrolled:
Auto-enrolment will be run and managed by a new independent body set up by the Department of Social Protection, called the National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority (NAERSA).
The auto-enrolment scheme will be supervised by the Pensions Authority. It will have statutory independence and will be governed by a Board of Directors.
The Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman services will also be available to participants.
Income from pensions will not be assessed for eligibility. However, you will be automatically enrolled if you are working as an employee, aged between 23 and 60, earn €20,000 or more through your employment(s) and if you or your employer are not currently contributing to a supplementary pension through payroll.
If you have been enrolled and your earnings subsequently go below €20,000 per year, you will stay in the scheme.
No, auto-enrolment is designed to increase people’s retirement savings. It will provide a new way for workers to save for their future. The purpose is to supplement the State Pension and not to replace it.
If you are no longer contributing to a work or personal pension, and you meet the other requirements, you will be automatically enrolled.
Any employment where you are not contributing to a personal or occupational pension through payroll and you meet the other eligibility criteria, you will be automatically enrolled.
Any employment where you are contributing to a personal or occupational pension through payroll, you will not be eligible for the scheme for that employment. However if you have another employment for which you are not contributing to a pension through payroll, you may be enrolled in respect of that employment.
If you are auto enrolled and later start contributing to a personal or occupational pension through payroll, that employment will become exempt from auto-enrolment and any overlapping contributions will be refunded. All employee, employer and State contributions until that time will remain invested in your savings pot.
NAERSA will not be able to tell if you have a private pension plan that you are contributing to outside of payroll. If you meet the eligibility criteria, you will be automatically enrolled. Therefore, it is up to you to decide whether to continue contributing to both.
We cannot advise if auto-enrolment or your current personal pension is better suited to your situation. The best option for you depends on your own circumstances, taking into account factors like tax relief, contribution amounts, charges and ancillary benefits.
It will be possible to remain a participant in the auto-enrolment scheme and pay contributions to another pension scheme outside of the payroll system.
No, the State will top up contributions in the auto-enrolment scheme at a rate of €1 for every €3 the employee contributes. This is equivalent to 25% tax relief. Other pension schemes will continue to be supported by tax relief, which can reach up to 40% depending on your earnings level.
Contributions that are not refunded (including the employer and State contributions) will stay in your savings pot and will continue to be invested on your behalf. So even if you opt out, you’ll still have a pot to drawdown/access at the retirement age of 66.
No, there will be no penalties for employees who continuously opt out of the scheme.
Your auto-enrolment pot will not be guaranteed by the State. This is the same as any other pension or savings plan.
The State, through auto-enrolment, is helping you save for your retirement, but the funds do not belong to the State. Each individual participant will build up their own pot of money that belongs to them.
The State will not have any claim over that money and will not have any right in the future to use it for any purpose. It will always be your personal property, accessible at the retirement age of 66.
The State is taking a number of steps to ensure that the money invested on your behalf stays as safe as possible, including:
If you stop working at any time before State Pension age, you will stay enrolled, but won’t make any contributions. Instead, your savings will continue to be invested for you. If and when you start to work again, you will begin making contributions, as long as you are not paying into a supplementary or occupational pension with your new job and still meet the eligibility criteria.
If you emigrate, your savings pot will continue to be invested and you will have access to it at State Pension age. All employee, employer and State contributions until that time will remain in your savings pot, and all contributions will cease.
If you return to Ireland to work, you may be enrolled again if you meet the criteria at that time.
No, however the State top-up is equivalent to 25% tax relief.
There are protections in the legislation to ensure that your employer must make contributions on your behalf. If they do not, they may be subject to fines and repayments with interest.
Charges will be set and explained near the launch date. Employees will be able to view fees on their annual statement that will be accessible online.
All companies with employees in Ireland, regardless of size or structure, will have to facilitate the auto-enrolment scheme for employees who meet the eligibility criteria and for those who wish to opt in.
Employers who prevent their employees from joining the scheme, or who force their employees to opt out or suspend contributions, may be prosecuted and will be subject to fines and penalties. Withheld or underpaid contributions will attract interest payments.
An employee for the purposes of auto-enrolment is the same as an employee for tax and PRSI purposes. It is a worker who works for and is paid by an employer, and is not self-employed.
Participants of Community Employment, Job Initiative, Rural Social Scheme or Tús schemes will not be eligible for the auto-enrolment scheme.
Supervisors in the Community Employment, Job Initiative, Rural Social Scheme or Tús schemes will be automatically enrolled once they meet the eligibility criteria.
Apprentices will be treated the same as any other employee, and if they meet the eligibility criteria they will be enrolled.
This depends on the PRSI class that you are contributing as a company director. If you pay PRSI as an employee and meet the eligibility criteria, then you will enrolled. But if you are registered as self-employed then you will not be eligible.
There are no waiting periods for the auto-enrolment scheme. New employees who have an earnings record with Revenue where they have earned €20,000 or more in a year will be automatically enrolled. For new employees who have no previous earnings record or a gap between their previous and new employment, enrolment may take up to 13 weeks while it is established if they will likely meet the earnings threshold.
PRSI classes will be used to exclude self-employed people from auto-enrolment.
If these employees don’t have pension contributions paid through the payroll and if they meet the age and income eligibility criteria, they will be automatically enrolled.
If data provided to the Revenue Commissioners in Ireland does not show active pension contributions and they meet the age and income eligibility criteria, they will be automatically enrolled.
Employees who are exempt from PRSI won’t be assessed for auto-enrolment.
Any income reported in the gross pay field on payroll will be assessed. For some employments, it will be clear on ‘Day 1’ that an employee meets the minimum earnings criterion. For others, it might take up to 13 weeks for NAERSA to apply a ‘look back’ at an employee’s earnings in a pay reference period.
No, there are no plans to force employers to contribute to personal pensions if that is outside the terms and conditions of your employment. It will be mandatory for employers with eligible employees to contribute to automatic enrolment when it is launched.
Any existing pension scheme will run in parallel to auto-enrolment. Any employees that have a record via payroll of either employee contributions and/or employer contributions will not be enrolled in the scheme.
The auto-enrolment legislation does not provide for employers to automatically enrol their employees into their existing pension scheme. That is a matter for employers and trustees of their pension schemes. Essentially, it depends on the employment contract you have set with your employees.
The Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Act 2024 Act does not affect existing legislation, so you will still have an obligation to offer access to a PRSA for employees who wish to avail of it.
No, once there is a pension contribution paid through payroll from an employee or employer, the employee will be deemed as having pension coverage already and won’t be enrolled.
By the end of year six of the operation of the auto-enrolment scheme, at the latest, standards for the exemption of existing pension schemes will be developed with the assistance of the Pensions Authority.
You won’t have to keep paying employer contributions if your employee opts out of the scheme. When the employee is re-enrolled, a new payroll notification will be available and all contributions will start again.
NAERSA will issue the Automatic Enrolment Payroll Notification (AEPN) through payroll software to both employers as normal. When the employee reaches the income threshold of €80,000 within the tax year, the payroll notification to both employers will be updated to reflect that no further contributions are to be paid. A new payroll notification will issue at the start of the next tax year to restart contributions if the employee still meets the eligibility criteria.
Yes, employees who choose to opt in will be treated the same as those who are automatically enrolled, and that means the employee, employer and State will contribute the set rates as outlined above.
No. The set contribution rates only apply to the auto-enrolment scheme. However, by the end of year six of the operation of the auto-enrolment scheme, at the latest, standards for the exemption of existing pension schemes will be developed with the assistance of the Pensions Authority.
An employee’s gross earnings will be assessed for the income threshold and for the calculation of contributions. This means that anything that’s included in the gross pay field on payroll will be assessable.
Employers will pay employee and employer contributions directly to NAERSA. It is anticipated that different methods will be available, including variable direct debit. Employers will be able to set this up on the employer portal. More information will be made available closer to launch date.
As an employer you will need to make a separate return through payroll directly to the National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority. Information on how this process will work will be made available to employers closer to go-live.
The calculation of contributions will be made through your existing payroll software.
No, auto-enrolment will be administered by a central body, the National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority, so there is no need to engage the services of a broker.