YOU WILL HAVE seen the ads: a double scoop of ice cream with a cherry on top. After a 20-year wait since the Government first proposed putting workers into a pension saving scheme, auto-enrolment is happening.

If you are one of the three-quarters of a million employees whose first payslip of 2026 shows a new MyFutureFund deduction from your wages, chances are you’re going to be keen to know more about auto-enrolment.

Auto-enrolment is a big change to how we do pensions and plan for retirement in Ireland.

Up to now, you have had to take steps to join a pension to save for your retirement, either by signing up to be a member of your employer’s pension or by taking out a personal pension.

Auto-enrolment flips the need to be proactive about pensions. Everyone who is eligible is automatically placed into the new pension saving scheme known as MyFutureFund. You only need to (re)act if you choose not to be in the pension.

CSO figures show one-third of workers have no pension outside of the social welfare pension.

The Contributory State Pension is currently €15,000 a year. The job of this pension is to cover the basics to keep you out of poverty in old age. For most of us, going from a wage to €289.30 a week is a big drop in income.

Unless you have retirement savings to add to your social welfare pension, it will also mean a big drop in your living standards. While this drop is felt by individuals, a reduction in the spending power of over 66s will have wider........

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