Auto-enrolment is a new pension savings scheme for certain employees who are not paying into a pension. They will be automatically included in the scheme but can opt out after 6 months.
Following an agreement by the Cabinet last week, Minister for Social Protection of Ireland, Heather Humphreys, has advised the scheme will commence, for employees who meet the requirements, from 30th September 2025.
The scheme will be overseen by the Pensions Authority, governed by a board of directors and will be held to account by the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman.
If your company does not operate a Pension Scheme and Employees do not have their own provisions for a PRSA or alternative pension scheme, employees who fall into the below categories will be automatically enrolled in the new pension scheme:
- Employees aged between 23 and 60
- Employees who are not currently part of a pension plan
- Employees earning €20,000 or more per year
The table below sets out the rates the employee, the employer, and the Government will pay:
| Year of the auto-enrolment scheme | Employee Contribution Rate | Employer pays | Government pays |
| 1 to 3 | 1.5% | 1.5% | 0.5% |
| 4 to 6 | 3% | 3% | 1% |
| 7 to 9 | 4.5% | 4.5% | 1.5% |
| 10 and after | 6% | 6% | 2% |
Both an employer’s and the Government’s contributions are capped at €80,000 gross annual salary.
Now that a launch date has been announced, the next steps for Employers are:
- Communicate to Employees about what is Pension Auto-Enrolment and how it may impact them.
- Conduct business and workforce impact analysis by assessing the company workforce by age, salary and current retirement arrangements.
- Calculate the costs associated with contributions based on the annual employer % contribution outlined above
- The new CPA will oversee the scheme and minimise administrative costs to employers with a cap of 0.5% per annum of assets proposed on management charges – these costs should be included in your forecasting model.
- Engage with payroll provider to understand if software will auto-calculate for auto-enrolment deductions and how to identify impacted employees within the system.
- If a current pension scheme in place for some employees, consider engaging with pensions provider to understand what the costs are to roll out for all impacted employees.
Where an employer does not meet their auto-enrolment obligations, they may face fines of up to €5000, back payments with interest or legal action.
The government have prepared an Auto-enrolment guide for Employers which can be accessed here.
