From January 2026, Irish workers across all sectors will be included in a new retirement savings scheme, which means an additional burden deducted from our salaries.
What's this about?
In accordance with the Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Act 2024, signed by President Michael D. Higgins, Irish workers will be covered by a new retirement savings scheme from the new year.
According to the government, relying solely on the state pension will lead to a significant deterioration in the islanders' standard of living in the long term. This is because employers in many sectors still do not offer employees a private pension plan. Therefore, the new plan is intended to encourage long-term saving.
To encourage employees who have not yet been enrolled in a private savings plan, a decision was made to create a new system, managed by the government agency NAERSA (National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority), which will invest contributions collected from employees and, at the appropriate time, pay out pensions. The new system will not replace the state benefit, but is intended to supplement it.
The changes being introduced may immediately bring to mind the Polish Third Pillar pension scheme, and indeed there are many similarities, though the two systems are not identical. In Ireland, the changes will automatically cover all qualifying employees, and the system itself will be entirely central and managed by a government agency.
Will everyone have to pay?
The aim of pension saving is to encourage all employees, with the support of employers and the state, to allocate part of their salary towards...
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