Auto Enrolment Pension in Ireland: What My Future Fund Means for Employers

Siobhán runs a café in Wexford with seven staff. She has just run payroll and noticed a new deduction on some payslips, along with a matching cost to the business. Two staff have asked what it is, and one wants to stop it. She is not sure what she is allowed to say.

That deduction is the auto enrolment pension in Ireland, run under the name MyFutureFund (often searched as My Future Fund). This guide explains it from the employer's side: who is enrolled, what it costs, how payroll handles it and what you must not do.

What auto enrolment pension in Ireland actually is

If you are asking what is auto enrolment pension, the short answer is a State-run workplace savings scheme for staff who have no pension through payroll. It started on 1 January 2026 and is run by the National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority (NAERSA). It is separate from the State Pension.

Three parties pay into My Future Fund: the employee, the employer and the State. Employers do not need their own scheme, trustees or an administration fee. Everything runs through payroll.

Which of your employees are enrolled

NAERSA decides who is enrolled, using payroll information. An employee is automatically enrolled if they:

• are aged 23 to 60,
• earn €20,000 or more a year across all their jobs, or more than €5,000 over a 13-week period, and
• are not already paying into a pension through payroll for that job.

Here is how that works for Siobhán's seven staff:

Staff who are not automatically enrolled can opt in if they are over 18, below pension age (66) and not in a payroll pension. Earnings are checked across all jobs, so if Paddy took a second job that brought him over €20,000, he could be enrolled even though his pay from Siobhán has not changed. New starters can take up to 13 weeks to be assessed.

What you pay and how it rises

Employee and employer contributions are a percentage of gross pay, and the State adds a top-up:

Employer and State contributions stop once the employee's pay reaches €80,000 in the year.

For Ciara on €32,000, Siobhán pays €480 a year at 1.5%. Across Ciara, Darren and Aisling (€88,000 in total pay), the café's cost is €1,320 a year in years 1 to 3. At the full 6% rate from year 10, the same pay would cost €5,280 a year. Build the rising cost of the auto enrolment pension in Ireland into your pricing now.

How it runs through payroll

Day to day, auto enrolment Ireland rules run mostly in the background:

1. 1NAERSA sends an Automatic Enrolment Payroll Notification (AEPN) to your payroll for each enrolled employee.
2. 2You apply the AEPN when you run payroll, and your payroll software calculates the contributions from gross pay.
3. 3You tell each employee their enrolment date. Welcome letters are available on the employer portal.
4. 4You pay both the employee and employer contributions directly to NAERSA. Payment methods include variable direct debit.
5. 5NAERSA collects the State top-up separately, so it does not appear on the payslip.

Employees get no tax relief on their own contributions. The State top-up replaces it, worth €1 for every €3 they put in. Your employer contributions are deductible for corporation tax in the year you pay them, and they are not treated as benefit in kind for the employee.

If your payroll is outsourced, check that your provider has your employer portal set up. Our payroll service handles AEPNs as part of each run, and if you are taking on your first staff, start with our guide to registering as an employer.

Opt-outs, suspensions and re-enrolment

Staff must stay in for at least six months. After that they have a two-month window, until month eight, to opt out. They get their own contributions back, but your employer contributions and the State top-up stay in their fund.

After six months, an employee can also suspend contributions, and must wait at least 12 months before restarting. Anyone who opts out or suspends is re-enrolled after two years if they are still eligible.

When an employee in Siobhán's café asks whether they should stop, the decision is theirs. She can point them to NAERSA, but she must not push them to opt out.

Mistakes that lead to penalties

The compliance risks for My Future Fund Ireland are clear:

• Not running the AEPN. If an enrolled employee is missed, withheld or underpaid contributions attract interest.
• Not contributing. Employers who fail to pay can be fined and must repay with interest.
• Pushing staff to opt out. Preventing staff from joining or forcing them to opt out can lead to prosecution, with fines and imprisonment possible for hindering participation.
• Assuming an existing scheme covers everyone. Only staff paying into a pension through payroll are excluded. Others in the same business can still be enrolled.

Clean monthly payroll records make My Future Fund Ireland compliance simple to get right. Our bookkeeping packages include payroll support for small employers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Get your payroll ready for My Future Fund

If you would like your payroll checked or run for you, our Wexford team can help. Still setting up your company? The Formation Calculator shows what is involved. To arrange a call-back, click here.