Written answer
Pension Provisions
MyFutureFund has over 835,000 participants, with fewer than 4%—29,352 people—opting out, which the Minister described as a successful launch.
66. Deputy Sean Fleming asked the Minister for Social Protection for an update on MyFutureFund following the recent opt out window. [67284/26]
Comment on this
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.
By the end of August, 29,352 participants had opted out. 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.
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.