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The new MyFutureFund will launch on January 1, establishing an automatic retirement savings scheme for 750,000 workers across the country.
Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary confirmed today that NAERSA – the National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority – has been formally established. The authority will administer the auto-enrolment scheme, MyFutureFund, facilitating people to save and invest for their retirement.
The new scheme will ensure around 750,000 workers, who currently are not actively paying into a pension through payroll, will have access to quality assured retirement savings from January 1, 2026. Here’s everything you need to know about NAERSA and the new MyFutureFund.
What is auto-enrolment for the MyFutureFund and how does it work?
Auto-enrolment is a new retirement savings system for employees that will be introduced on 1 January 2026.
People who do not have a pension scheme, earn more than €20,000 per year and are aged between 23 and 60 will be automatically enrolled into the new system. This means that they will have extra money when they retire and won’t have to rely on the state pension alone.
An extra benefit to employees is that their employer and the State will also contribute – for every €3 that an employee puts in, the employer will also put in €3 and the State will top up by €1. This means that for every €3 contributed by the employee, €7 will be put into the employee’s account.
How much will I be paying?
The amount you pay will be a set rate of your annual salary. Your employer will match your contributions, and the Government will contribute an additional amount. You cannot pay more or less than the set rate.
You and your employer will pay 1.5% of your annual salary in the first year. This will increase to 6% by year 10.
The table below sets out the rates you, your 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% What is NAERSA’S role?
NAERSA will administer the auto-enrolment scheme, MyFutureFund, facilitating people to save and invest for their retirement. It will handle the bulk of the administration of the scheme by determining eligibility for auto-enrolment and enrolling eligible employees.
It will also collect all employee, employer and State contributions, and invest the money on participants’ behalf. A default investment strategy will be in place, but some alternative investment options will be available for those who may wish to make a more active investment choice. NAERSA will then allocate any investment returns to participants’ savings pots. Participants’ will keep one savings pot as they move from job to job – this is known as the ‘pot-follows-member’ approach.
NAERSA will operate an online portal for employees through the MyFutureFund website, to manage employee opt-outs, opt-ins, suspension of contributions and re-enrolment. Employers will also have a dedicated MyFutureFund portal where they will be able to view their enrolled employees, access resources and check their payment records.
According to the Department of Social Protection, this means that there will be very little administration for employers when compared to setting up and administering a workplace pension scheme.
What do employers have to do ahead of MyFutureFund launching?
All employers will be asked to do, from December in the lead up to the introduction of MyFutureFund, is complete their profile on the employer portal and set up a payment method for contributions. Direct debit, like most employers probably already use for tax purposes, is the preferred method as it will help them remain compliant by facilitating the collection of contributions on time. This should all only take about 10 minutes.
Once employers have done this, they will also need to inform employees who have been enrolled of their enrolment date which can be done using supports on the portal.
A suite of employer focussed communications and supports will be made available in the coming weeks. It will include ads, guides and webinars to make all of this as simple as possible.
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