Heather Humphreys, the minister for social protection, has outlined her plan to implement the much-anticipated pension auto-enrolment programme for workers.

Under the plan, businesses would match employee contributions with an additional €3, meaning that the State will contribute €1 for every €3 an employee contributes to their pension account.

Workers between the ages of 23 and 60 who are not currently registered in a pension plan will be enrolled automatically.

There will be a clause in the law allowing employees to choose not to participate in the programme.

Speaking on her way to Cabinet on Wednesday, Ms. Humphreys stated: “I’m thrilled to be bringing forward legislation for approval at Cabinet today, which will mean 800,000 private sector workers who currently don’t have a pension scheme will be enrolled into a pension scheme. Auto-enrolment has been talked about for decades.”

“It means that when they retire, there’s going to be a pot there. So, they’ll have their own pension scheme on top of the state pension.

“It’s very simple. For every three euros you save, your employer matches the three Euro, and the state tops it up with one euro.”

“Most people find that they don’t have any pension provision when they retire, and there’s a cliff edge drop in their income,” the speaker said.

“I want to put that down. I want to make sure they have extra money in their pocket when they retire. Because there is more money available to spend, it is advantageous for businesses, the economy, and society.

“I think that (the scheme) is evidence of the Government looking more long-term in many of our decisions,” Tánaiste Micheál Martin stated.

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