Auto-Enrolment in Ireland: What Employers and Staff Need to Know

Auto-enrolment in Ireland is MyFutureFund, a state-run retirement savings scheme that began on 1 January 2026 under the Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Act 2024. If you employ people, you now have to register, run it through payroll and pay your share. If you are an employee, you may already have been enrolled. This guide covers who is in, what it costs, how to opt out and what to do on payroll.

TL;DR

MyFutureFund covers employees aged 23 to 60 earning more than €20,000 a year who have no pension through payroll. Self-employed people cannot opt in.
In 2026 the employee and the employer each pay 1.5% of gross pay, and the State adds 0.5%. Rates rise in stages over the first ten years.
Employers register on the MyFutureFund portal, set up a payment method and send payroll data every pay cycle.
Employees can opt out only in a short window or suspend contributions later. Neither route removes the employer's duty to enrol.
Missed duties can bring penalties, interest on late contributions and prosecution, so payroll needs to be accurate from the first run.

What auto-enrolment is and how it started
Who is eligible, and who is not
What it costs: contributions in 2026 and beyond
What employers must do
Opting out and suspending contributions
Auto-enrolment and an existing workplace pension
What happens if you get it wrong
Our view on auto-enrolment
How we can help
Frequently asked questions
Sources

What auto-enrolment is and how it started

MyFutureFund is Ireland's state-sponsored automatic-enrolment retirement savings system. The Department of Social Protection describes it as a landmark initiative to help workers without pension coverage save for retirement. The scheme is regulated and operated by NAERSA, the National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority.

The idea is simple. Instead of waiting for people to set up a pension, the system enrols eligible workers and takes a small contribution from each pay packet. The employer matches it and the State tops it up. At launch, the Department reported that the scheme covered over 760,000 employees and that around 85,000 employers had registered.

For most small employers this is a payroll change, not an investment decision. You do not choose a provider or design a plan. You supply accurate pay data and the money.

Who is eligible, and who is not

According to MyFutureFund's eligibility page, an employee is enrolled if they:

are aged between 23 and 60;
earn more than €20,000 a year, or more than €5,000 over a 13-week period; and
do not already have a pension recorded through payroll.

Three points trip employers up.

Existing pensions. An employee with a pension recorded through payroll is not auto-enrolled for that employment. If you already run a group scheme or PRSA contributions through payroll, those staff are generally outside MyFutureFund. Check with your payroll provider how each pension is recorded.

Multiple jobs. Someone with several employments is enrolled for any job where they have no pension cover, provided combined gross annual earnings meet the €20,000 threshold. A part-time employee on €9,000 from you may still be enrolled because of earnings elsewhere.

Directors and the self-employed. Self-employed people cannot opt in. A company director who is paid through payroll is an employee for this purpose, so it is worth checking how your own salary is treated if you pay yourself through the company. If you are a sole trader with no employees, the scheme does not apply to you, and your retirement saving is a separate personal decision. Our guide to sole trader versus limited company covers how that choice changes your pay and tax position.

What it costs: contributions in 2026 and beyond

In 2026, employees and employers each contribute 1.5% of gross pay and the State adds 0.5%. Contributions are calculated on earnings up to €80,000 a year. Pay above that is ignored.

The rates are phased in over the first ten years, which lets you budget. The Department's published contribution examples set out the schedule:

Period	Employee	Employer	State top-up
2026 to 2028	1.5%	1.5%	0.5%
2029 to 2031	3%	3%	1%
2032 to 2034	4.5%	4.5%	1.5%
2035 onwards	6%	6%	2%

A worked example

The same Department examples show an employee earning €50,000 a year. In 2026 that person pays €62.50 a month, the employer pays €62.50 a month and the State adds a top-up on top. For you as the employer, that is €750 a year for this one employee at the 2026 rate.

By 2035, if pay were unchanged, the employer rate of 6% on €50,000 would be €3,000 a year per employee. That is arithmetic on the published rates, not a forecast of anyone's wages. It does show why headcount planning matters. A business of ten eligible employees on similar pay moves from about €7,500 a year in 2026 to about €30,000 in 2035 before pay rises.

To see what the employee's contribution does to take-home pay, our Irish take-home pay calculator shows PAYE, USC and PRSI side by side. It is useful when staff ask what the deduction means for their net pay.

What employers must do

The employer pages on MyFutureFund set out three core duties:

Register on the MyFutureFund portal.
Set up a payment method.
Provide payroll submissions to NAERSA each pay cycle, so the required contributions can be calculated.

The third is the one that decides whether you stay compliant. The contribution is calculated from the data you send, so an error in gross pay, a wrong start date or a missed new starter flows straight through to the amount owed.

A practical checklist

Map your staff. List every employee with age, annual gross pay, other jobs you know of and any pension already running through payroll.
Register early in the process. Do it before a pay run needs it, not during one.
Check your payroll software. Confirm how it produces the submissions and who is responsible for sending them.
Brief your team. Employees notice a new deduction. A short note on who is enrolled, what comes off and how to opt out saves a lot of questions.
Budget the step-ups. Add the 2029 rate change to your forecasts now.
Reconcile each month. Compare what the portal says you owe with what payroll shows.

If you outsource payroll, ask your provider in writing whether MyFutureFund submissions are included and who answers to NAERSA if something is wrong. Responsibility stays with you as the employer even when someone else does the work.

Opting out and suspending contributions

Employees are enrolled automatically, but not locked in. Based on MyFutureFund's participant FAQ:

Opting out is possible only in months 7 and 8 after initial enrolment or after a rate change.
Suspending contributions is possible for one to two years, after the initial six-month mandatory period.

That means an employee cannot walk away on day one. It also means the opt-out window reopens after each rate increase, so you may see questions from staff in 2029 and again in later phases.

The same FAQ advises that the choice of pension scheme should rest on personal circumstances, including factors such as existing tax relief and associated benefits. Employers should not advise individual staff on whether to stay in. Point them to MyFutureFund and, for personal tax questions, to a qualified adviser. Directors and higher earners with their own pension arrangements often want that conversation, and our personal tax advisory team handles it.

Auto-enrolment and an existing workplace pension

If you already offer a pension through payroll, the eligibility rules mean those employees are not enrolled for that employment. The practical task is to make sure the pension is recorded correctly, and that you know which staff have no cover.

A common situation in small firms is a mixed team. The owner and two senior staff have a PRSA, while five junior and part-time employees have nothing. After 1 January 2026, those five are the ones likely to be enrolled. That creates two tiers of benefit, and it is worth deciding deliberately whether you want to leave it so or offer a single arrangement. That is a commercial decision, and it is one to take with an adviser who can model the cost.

What happens if you get it wrong

The Department's employer guidance states that employers who fail to meet their obligations may face penalties and prosecution. Withheld or underpaid contributions attract interest. The Workplace Relations Commission deals with cases where employees are hindered or penalised in connection with the scheme.

In practice, the risks for a small business are mundane ones:

an eligible employee never enrolled because their age or pay was entered wrongly;
a second job that pushes someone over the earnings threshold without you knowing;
a payroll submission missed in a busy week;
a payment method that fails and goes unnoticed.

Each is fixable if caught early, and each gets more expensive the longer it runs.

Our view on auto-enrolment

We see auto-enrolment as a payroll and compliance problem first and a pensions topic second. For most of the small businesses we work with, the scheme itself is straightforward. The difficulty is that it depends on clean payroll data, and clean payroll data depends on bookkeeping that is up to date.

That is why we do not treat payroll, bookkeeping, VAT and annual compliance as separate jobs. A new starter recorded late in the books becomes a missed enrolment in payroll. A director's salary that is not reconciled becomes a wrong submission. When the tasks are connected, errors show up in one place and get fixed once.

Our advice to owners is practical. Know which of your staff are eligible. Put the step-ups in your cash flow forecast now, because the 2029 move from 1.5% to 3% doubles the employer cost on the same pay. Ask your payroll provider exactly what they submit and when. And review your management accounts each month, so a payroll cost you did not expect never comes as a surprise.

— Stratancy

How we can help

If you would rather not manage this yourself, our payroll service is priced at €25 per month per employee or director. It sits alongside our accounting packages, which start from €129 per month for sole traders and from €159 per month for limited companies. Payroll, bookkeeping and VAT are handled by ACCA-qualified accountants on Xero, QuickBooks or Sage, so your pay data and your books agree. If you are still deciding on bookkeeping support, see our bookkeeping services or our guide to choosing an accountant in Ireland.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to be auto-enrolled into a pension?

If you are aged 23 to 60, earn over €20,000 a year and have no pension through payroll, you will be enrolled automatically. You are not forced to stay in. You can opt out in months 7 and 8 after enrolment or after a rate change, or suspend contributions for one to two years after the first six months.

How do I opt out of MyFutureFund?

The opt-out window is months 7 and 8 after your initial enrolment or after a rate change. Use the options on the MyFutureFund participant pages rather than asking your employer to stop deductions. Before you decide, consider your own circumstances, including any tax relief and benefits you would lose.

Can the self-employed join MyFutureFund?

No. Self-employed people cannot opt in to the scheme. If you are a sole trader, you can still save for retirement through other pension products, and a personal tax adviser can tell you how contributions affect your tax return. Our guide to Form 11 filing explains the return where this is claimed.

What does auto-enrolment cost an employer in 2026?

You pay 1.5% of each eligible employee's gross pay, up to an annual salary of €80,000. The employee pays the same and the State adds 0.5%. The rate for employers rises to 3% in 2029, 4.5% in 2032 and 6% from 2035.

What if an employee has two jobs?

They are enrolled for any employment where they have no pension, as long as their combined gross annual earnings reach the €20,000 threshold. This means you can have an eligible employee whose pay from you alone is below that figure.