MyFutureFund, Ireland’s pension auto-enrolment system, started on 1 January 2026 and it applies to employers of every size in Limerick. A city-centre café with four staff is in scope on exactly the same terms as a 200-person manufacturer out at the National Technology Park. If you have never offered a pension before, that makes no difference. Once an employee meets the criteria, you must deduct their contribution, match it from company funds and remit both to the new State authority through your payroll.
Here’s the part that catches people out. Enrolment is run centrally, so you do not choose who joins, but that does not make this someone else’s problem. You cannot decline to take part, you cannot quietly skip the deductions, and you cannot nudge staff towards opting out to save yourself the employer match. Doing so is an offence under the Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Act 2024, and it can land you in front of the Workplace Relations Commission as well.
What is MyFutureFund and which employees must I automatically enrol?
Roughly a third of Irish private sector workers had no supplementary pension before 2026. MyFutureFund is the State’s answer: a workplace savings pot that sits on top of the State Pension rather than replacing it. Think of it as a second income stream in retirement, funded by three parties instead of one.
The criteria for automatic enrolment are:
- Aged between 23 and 60
- Gross earnings of €20,000 or more a year, counted across all employments combined
- Not already paying pension contributions through payroll in that employment
Contributions are calculated on gross pay up to a ceiling of €80,000. Earnings above that are ignored for contribution purposes, so a director on €120,000 generates the same contribution as one on €80,000.
The National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority, NAERSA, does the identifying. It reads Revenue payroll data, works out who qualifies and sends you an enrolment notice. You do not sign anyone up, and you do not get to leave anyone off the list. Your job starts when the instruction arrives.
What about the people who fall outside the net? Employees under 23, over 60, or earning below €20,000 are not enrolled automatically, but they can generally opt in voluntarily provided they are not already in a qualifying scheme through payroll. If one of your part-time retail staff asks to join, you facilitate it. Your business, meanwhile, has no opt-out of any kind.
Eligibility is not a one-off assessment either. It gets revisited when someone starts with you, moves employer, holds two jobs (a common pattern in Limerick hospitality), crosses the €20,000 line after a pay rise or extra hours, or begins contributing to another pension through payroll. Someone who was ineligible in March can be enrolled by October.
How much must the employer, employee and State contribute?
Rates rise in four phases over ten years, which gives you time to budget but also means your payroll cost will not stay still.
| Period | Employee | Employer | State top-up | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 to 2028 | 1.5% | 1.5% | 0.5% | 3.5% |
| 2029 to 2031 | 3% | 3% | 1% | 7% |
| 2032 to 2034 | 4.5% | 4.5% | 1.5% | 10.5% |
| 2035 onwards | 6% | 6% | 2% | 14% |
All rates apply to eligible gross earnings up to €80,000, and you must match the employee rate euro for euro. The shorthand used by the Department of Social Protection is neat: for every €3 the employee saves, the employer adds €3 and the State adds €1. That State top-up is not a bonus, it replaces the income tax relief employees get on conventional private pensions, so there is no relief at the marginal rate on MyFutureFund deductions.
Take a Limerick business with ten employees, all earning €40,000 and all eligible. Total eligible payroll is €400,000. At the 2026 rates:
- Employer contributions: €6,000 a year, or €500 a month of direct cost
- Employee deductions: €6,000 a year, taken from net pay
- State top-up: €2,000 a year, paid into the employees’ accounts
Fast forward to 2035 and the same headcount on the same salaries costs the employer €24,000 a year, with €24,000 from employees and €8,000 from the State. That is a jump from €500 to €2,000 a month in employer cost. Your real figure will differ depending on eligible headcount, actual pay levels, staff turnover and how many people are already covered by an existing scheme, which is why a proper forecast beats a rule of thumb.
How will auto-enrolment affect payroll, records and cash flow?
Operationally, this is a payroll job, not a pensions job. The cycle runs like this:
- Receive the enrolment notice from NAERSA for a named employee
- Calculate the employee deduction and the matching employer contribution on gross pay
- Show the deduction clearly and separately on the payslip
- Submit the required payroll information to NAERSA
- Remit the combined employee and employer contributions by the applicable deadline
Timing matters more than with PAYE. Contributions are collected on the pay date itself rather than the following month, so there is no float. Check current NAERSA guidance for the exact submission cut-off that applies to your pay frequency, because it is tighter than most owners expect.
Keep the two costs separate in your head. The employee deduction is their money passing through your account. The employer match is a genuine new cost, €500 a month in our ten-person example, rising at each phase. Employer contributions are an allowable business expense for corporation tax purposes, which softens the blow slightly, and Revenue can confirm the treatment for your structure.
Before your next payroll run, check that:
- Your payroll software is on a version that handles auto-enrolment instructions and reporting
- PPSNs, dates of birth and employment start dates are accurate for every employee
- Pension indicators are set correctly for anyone already in a scheme
- Irregular pay (overtime, commission, seasonal hours) is handled consistently
- Payroll records reconcile to NAERSA instructions every period, not once a quarter
On records, retain enrolment notices, contribution calculations, payslips, remittance confirmations, employee communications, opt-out notifications and any corrections you make. Retention periods and reporting duties should be checked against current NAERSA guidance rather than assumed from PAYE practice.
Finally, tell your staff what is happening before the first deduction appears. Keep it factual: why they were enrolled, what is coming out, what the employer and State add, their right to opt out at the appropriate time, and where to access their MyFutureFund account. Do not stray into financial advice you are not regulated to give, and never pressure anyone to leave.
What happens if I already provide a workplace pension?
An employee who is actively contributing through payroll to a qualifying occupational scheme, PRSA or similar arrangement is in what the legislation calls exempt employment, and will not be enrolled in MyFutureFund for that job. The word doing the heavy lifting is “actively”. An old paid-up pension from a previous employer, or a personal plan the employee funds from their own bank account, does not create an exemption.
Since 1 January 2026 the existing scheme must also meet minimum contribution standards, developed with the Pensions Authority, so that members are no worse off than they would be under MyFutureFund’s opening rates.
| Scheme type | Standard to meet |
|---|---|
| Defined contribution | Total contributions of 3.5% of gross pay, including at least 1.5% from the employer, subject to annual caps of €1,200 employer and €2,800 total |
| Defined benefit | Membership must confer a long service benefit based on continuing employment |
NAERSA identifies existing coverage from the pension data reported through payroll. If that data is wrong, incomplete or goes stale (an employee leaves your scheme mid-year, say), the mismatch is yours to fix promptly through payroll, and you may need to correct contributions already taken or missed. A scheme that drifts below the standards stops supporting exemption, and the affected employees become enrollable.
Mixed workforces are the norm rather than the exception. Plenty of Limerick employers will end up running an occupational scheme for long-serving staff while newer or part-time employees sit in MyFutureFund. That is perfectly workable, but it means reviewing waiting periods, entry ages, employee categories, contribution rates and payroll coding rather than assuming your existing scheme quietly covers everybody. Six-month waiting periods are a particularly common trap.
Can employees opt out, pause contributions or be automatically re-enrolled?
Yes, but on the State’s timetable, not yours. Citizens Information sets out the sequence:
- Mandatory period: the first six months of participation, during which nobody can leave
- Opt-out window: months seven and eight after enrolment
- Rate-change window: a further opportunity to opt out following an increase in contribution rates, such as the 2029 step-up
- Suspension: available once the opt-out window has passed, pausing contributions rather than ending membership
- Re-enrolment: automatic after two years, if the employee is still eligible
Verify exact timings against current MyFutureFund guidance before you communicate them, as operational detail has been refined since launch.
What happens to the money? An employee who opts out gets their own contributions refunded. Employer contributions and State top-ups already paid stay in their MyFutureFund account and are preserved for retirement. They do not come back to you. That is worth saying plainly to staff who assume opting out reverses everything.
Suspension is different from opting out. Contributions simply stop, and while they are stopped the employer match and State top-up stop too. Nothing is refunded, and the savings already built up stay put. Eligibility is reassessed if the employee changes job, stops working, drops below €20,000 or starts qualifying pension contributions elsewhere.
One rule you must not get wrong: the employee exercises these rights themselves through the official process. You continue deducting until NAERSA instructs you otherwise. An employee telling you in the corridor that they want out is not an instruction to stop payroll deductions.
What happens if an employer does not meet its auto-enrolment duties?
The Act names the failures fairly bluntly: ignoring enrolment instructions, not deducting or remitting contributions, underpaying the employer match, supplying false payroll information, or obstructing an employee’s participation.
| Type of failure | Likely consequence |
|---|---|
| Administrative breaches | Compliance notice, repayment of missing contributions, interest and other financial liabilities |
| Fixed-penalty offences | Fixed penalties of up to €5,000 |
| Serious offences | Fines of up to €50,000 and/or imprisonment for up to three years |
| Hindering an employee | Separate offence under section 128 of the Act |
Separately, employees are protected from dismissal, demotion, loss of promotion, reduced wages or other penalisation for taking part, and they can bring a complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission. So a badly handled conversation about opting out can turn into an employment law claim on top of a pensions liability. Check the current statutory maximums and NAERSA’s enforcement guidance before relying on any figure, as penalty provisions can be commenced or amended over time.
A practical compliance checklist for a Limerick small business:
- Identify which employees are affected now and which will cross the thresholds within a year
- Audit any existing pension arrangement against the minimum contribution standards
- Confirm your payroll software and pension indicators are configured correctly
- Forecast employer cost across all four contribution phases, not just this year
- Assign named responsibility for the monthly process, with a backup
- Test a full cycle, including reconciliation, before it matters
- Issue written employee communications ahead of the first deduction
Document the decisions you make and why. If you run multiple schemes, have unusual pay arrangements, or are genuinely unsure whether an exemption applies, take payroll, pensions, tax or legal advice rather than guessing. A wrong assumption compounds every pay period.
Frequently asked questions
When did pension auto-enrolment start, and what should employers do now?
MyFutureFund commenced on 1 January 2026, so this is a live compliance obligation rather than something to plan for later. If you have not already done so, run three checks this month: confirm your payroll software processes NAERSA instructions and reports correctly, review your workforce for eligible employees and those approaching the age or earnings thresholds, and test any existing pension scheme against the minimum contribution standards. Then forecast the employer cost through 2035 so the 2029 increase is not a surprise.
Is it better to use an existing occupational pension or MyFutureFund?
It depends on cost, tax treatment, benefit design, flexibility, your employee profile and how much administration you want to carry. An occupational scheme or PRSA gives employees marginal-rate tax relief on their own contributions, which MyFutureFund does not, and it gives you control over investment options, death-in-service cover and contribution structure. Many employers will keep or improve an existing scheme for that reason, and extend it to staff who were previously excluded. Others will find MyFutureFund simpler. This is a business decision with financial advice attached, so take regulated pensions advice before restructuring anything.
Can a payroll provider manage auto-enrolment deductions and employer contributions?
Yes, and most employers should outsource the mechanics. A provider can configure payroll, apply enrolment instructions, calculate deductions and the employer match, handle submissions and remittances, reconcile against NAERSA records and maintain the documentation. What cannot be outsourced is legal responsibility. The employer remains accountable for accurate, timely compliance, so agree clearly who does what, and keep sight of the reconciliations rather than filing them unread.
How can a Limerick payroll specialist help you comply?
An auto-enrolment payroll review is a straightforward piece of work with a decent return. We look at employee data quality, eligibility indicators, existing pension deductions, software readiness and your projected employer cost across each contribution phase, then tell you what needs fixing and in what order.
From there, our payroll services for Limerick employers cover the ongoing work: setup, contribution processing, period-by-period reconciliation against NAERSA instructions, record keeping and the payroll information your employees receive. If the numbers change how you think about staffing costs or scheme design, our business advisory team can model it properly.
Book a consultation or request an auto-enrolment readiness check through our contact page, and we will tell you exactly where your payroll stands.
The information in this blog is provided for general informational purposes only and does not constitute accounting, tax, business, or legal advice. While Coffey & Co aims to ensure the content is accurate and up to date, no guarantee is given regarding its completeness or suitability for any particular purpose.