87. Deputy John McGuinness asked the Minister for Social Protection the final number of participants in MyFutureFund eligible to opt out during the first opt-out window ending on 31 August 2026; the number and percentage who opted out; the number who subsequently cancelled an opt-out request during the cooling-off period; the total value of employee contributions refunded; the corresponding value of employer and State contributions retained in participants’ funds; a breakdown of those eligible (details supplied); the reasons recorded for opting out and the implications of the results for the operation of the scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter [67511/26]

The Programme for Government contained a commitment to introduce the Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System (AE). The aim of introducing AE was to address the pension coverage gap that exists in Ireland and to provide workers with greater comfort and security regarding their retirement income.

The new system - known as MyFutureFund - commenced on the 1 January 2026 and it is overseen by the National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority (NAERSA), which is a separate statutory body, independent of my Department and directly responsible for all operational elements of MyFutureFund. There are currently over 835,000 participants in MyFutureFund.

I have been advised by NAERSA that during the month of August, there were 847,743 participants in MyFutureFund. By the end of August, 29,352 participants had opted out. As the Deputy will be aware, opt outs were facilitated in July as well and so not all of those participants opted out during August. The opt out rate as a percentage of the number of eligible participants is less than 4 percent which it should be noted is substantially below international comparators such as the UK where the opt rate was approximately 10 percent and New Zealand where it was approximately 12 percent.

On the basis of refunds that have been fully processed, the average refund to employees who opted out was €331 while the average left in their fund was €440.

In relation to your request for a figure for those who subsequently cancelled their request, NAERSA has advised me that it is not possible to give a figure for this but they understand that those who made opt out requests generally did not cancel them.

The other data you have requested is outlined in tabular below with the exception of annual earnings band which it has not been possible to give to you.

Fund

NAERSA advises me that the difference in the count by NACE vs total participant opted out is due to multiple employments.

Also the high numbers of participants and low opt out rate demonstrates the great level of success that MyFutureFund has achieved since its commencement, and I am extremely proud as Minister to have led on the transformational reform that is MyFutureFund as I believe it will have a positive and lasting impact on peoples’ lives in Ireland for generations to come.

I hope this clarifies matters for the Deputy.