2026-01-15

3. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Social Protection for an update on the roll-out of auto-enrolment; specifically for an update on his engagement with other Departments as regards the roll-out of auto-enrolment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2823/26]

This again is a straightforward question. I am interested in the numbers of people who have been signed up for auto-enrolment, and also any engagements the Department or Minister may have had with agencies. I submitted this question because I was contacted by senior managers in funded agencies who had a concern that their funding was not increased but their obligation had increased. One of them cheekily said I could ask that if they had to make a choice between services and pension, where the Minister would want them to make that cut.

As the Deputy knows, we introduced the automatic enrolment system from 1 January. The aim of introducing auto-enrolment is to address the pension coverage gap that exists in Ireland and to provide workers with access to a quality-assured retirement savings scheme, thereby giving greater comfort and security regarding their retirement income. My Future Fund commenced on 1 January. More than 763,000 employees who were not actively contributing to a qualifying pension or PRSA through payroll were eligible. They have been automatically enrolled in My Future Fund. I will have an up-to-date figure for the Deputy shortly. As of my most recent check, on Monday, 92% of employers had registered. I will get the employee figure for the Deputy. It has been a very good response from employers and employees to date. The collection of employer and employee contributions has now commenced and is operating in line with the design and build of the system. The contributions are being topped up by the State and transferred to investment management providers for investment. Portals are available to employers and will be available to employees in the coming fortnight to access a range of services and to check on their accounts. This positive start is reflective of the massive effort made by my Department and other stakeholders, including payroll providers and employers, in advance of the launch of My Future Fund. My Department has worked across a range of Government Departments and agencies through the Cabinet committee structure and bilateral engagements. The Deputy has raised this issue with me on many occasions and I, in turn, have raised it across Departments, including the Department of Finance in relation to taxation and the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation, and with the Revenue Commissioners and Attorney General. Officials in my Department have raised with officials in every other Department the responsibilities of agencies under auto-enrolment. We cannot dictate the budget allocations for other Departments, but I assure the Deputy I have been consistent in raising the matter with ministerial colleagues. It has been raised at Secretary General level with regard to the responsibilities of auto-enrolment and we will continue to engage with Departments on the funding responsibilities.

The Minister deftly avoided answering that question. If the choice for the chief executive is that he has to put money into the pension or cut back on services, what decision does the Minister want him to make? Between 70,000 and 80,000 people are currently not covered, but the 92% figure is certainly evidence that people have heard about auto-enrolment and are signing up. I still have a concern because I know this happened previously. I welcome that the Minister has had engagements across Departments, but I ask him to redouble his efforts to ensure that at accounting time at the end of year, there is not going to be an unfortunate cliff for people. There is genuine concern. To be clear, I do not often stand up for management in here but the senior people in funded organisations who came to me want their workers to be in a pension scheme. They also want to be able to provide the services, and a lot of them said they had difficulty with Departments. I welcome that the Minister is engaging. I ask him to have another round of engagements.

Obviously, I do not want any CEO to be in that position. We will continue to engage with the Departments. I have the up-to-date figures. As of 12 January, 94,062 employers were registered and 700,256 employees were registered. The total amount collected to date since 1 January is €14.47 million. The contact centre, which has been open since 1 December, has taken 4,620 calls and 3,748 online chats. Some 57% of those are from employers, 21% from participants and 15% from agents. The contact centre is continuing to engage, and I think that will continue. I will certainly be engaging with ministerial colleagues with regard to funded agencies. I will continue to pursue this issue and keep the Deputy up to speed on my work.

I record my concern with regard to Tata Consultancy Services. I have put this on the record previously. I am not massively impressed with the Minister’s defence of the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund - that if it is good enough for Norway, it should be good enough for us. We should paddle our own canoe on this and the Minister should do his own research. I do not think the State should be doing business with companies that have a significant presence in the occupied territories, and I do not think the Minister does either. The Minister said he will continue his engagement and I welcome that. I undertake to forward to him any concerns brought to my attention because I, like him, want to make sure people are catered for in their retirement. I would prefer that money to be managed by the National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA, and invested in other ways, but the decision was taken and we need to deal with the reality. I will keep in touch with the Minister as people get in touch with me.

We want to continue that engagement. In relation to Tata Consultancy Services, TCS, I have done more research since the Deputy and I last engaged on this. TCS is not included on any UN or EU database of companies that are involved in specific activities related to Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Specifically, the UN, pursuant to Resolutions 31/36 and 53/25, produces a list of enterprises involved in specific activities related to Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. TCS does not feature on this list, which, to my knowledge, was last updated in September 2025. I acknowledge that TCS Ireland, based in Letterkenny, employs more than 1,400 people and has been an extraordinarily strong partner in the roll-out of My Future Fund to date. As I said to Deputy O’Reilly at the committee, inevitably in a project of this complexity there will be glitches. We want to address those as quickly as possible and if Deputies or Senators encounter any, they should raise them with us and we will seek to address them. Auto-enrolment is a complete change and it will be reflected in a massive change in the country's pension and post-retirement savings landscape.