On 1 January 2026, Ireland’s automatic enrolment scheme, MyFutureFund, officially came into operation.
Eligible employees between the ages of 23-60 and earning more than €20,000 per year will be automatically enrolled in this scheme. Employees will not be enrolled where they are in “exempt employment” i.e. they are members of a pension scheme to which minimum contributions are being made.
The initial contribution rates to MyFutureFund are set at 1.5% for each the employer and employee. These rates will gradually increase by a further 1.5% every three years, eventually reaching a rate of 6% in the tenth year of the scheme.
In addition, the State will top up contributions remitted to MyFutureFund. Initially, this will be at a rate of 0.5%, which will gradually increase to 2% by the tenth year of the scheme.
Contributions are capped at a gross annual earnings threshold of €80,000.
The administration of MyFutureFund will be overseen by the National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority (‘NAERSA’).
Minimum Contribution Rates
Initially, no minimum contribution rates were required to qualify as “exempt employment”. In effect, this meant that any level of contribution to a pension scheme, whether made by the employer, employee, or both, would have been sufficient to avoid the automatic enrolment of an employee in MyFutureFund.
However, in late December 2025, Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary, noted that a very small number of employers were reported to have compulsorily enrolled employees in occupational schemes at notional contribution rates. In practice, this would have denied employees access to MyFutureFund when it commenced in 2026.
On that basis, the Department of Social Protection issued a press release on Christmas Eve 2025, noting that the Minister had signed regulations to establish minimum contribution rates that must be met before an employee would be considered exempt from enrolling in MyFutureFund.
For defined contribution occupational schemes and personal retirement savings accounts (‘PRSA’s), the overall contributions made to the scheme must equal the lesser of 3.5% of the employee’s gross pay, or €2,800 per year. Of this, the employer must contribute a minimum of 1.5% of the employee’s gross pay or €1,200 per year, whichever is the lesser.
For defined benefit occupational schemes, continued service in employment must entitle the employee to accrue a long service benefit.
This recent change means that some employers which may not have registered with MyFutureFund prior to 1 January now have contribution rates which fall below the minimum standards, whether to a PRSA or occupational scheme and made by the employer, the employee, or both.
However, the press release should offer some comfort to such employers, as the Department noted that rather than imposing penalties, NAESRA’s initial focus will be on ensuring that those claiming to be exempt from enrolling in MyFutureFund are meeting the minimum standards.
This will involve an assessment of contribution levels over a three-month period to ensure the minimum standards referenced above are being met. Should the contribution rates not reach the expected 3.5% over this reference period, NAESRA will engage with the employer to assist them in becoming compliant.
It is only where the employer continues to fall below the required standards and does not demonstrate efforts to either reach these standards or to allow employees to enrol in MyFutureFund that NAERSA will seek to rely on their statutory powers of enforcement.
