If you employ engineers, fitters, apprentices, or office staff in Ireland, there’s a good chance your payroll costs increased on 1 January 2026 whether you realised it or not.
That’s when My Future Fund, Ireland’s new auto-enrolment pension scheme, came into force. For the first time, employers are required to contribute towards retirement savings for eligible employees, even if they’ve never offered a workplace pension before.
For some businesses, the immediate cost is relatively small. What catches people out is that it’s not a one-off change. Contribution rates increase over time, the rules aren’t always as straightforward as they first appear, and there are a few areas where field service businesses need to pay particular attention. Apprentices, part-time workers and employees with more than one job can all create situations that aren’t quite as simple as they look on paper.
If you run a field service company, this is now part of the cost of employing people in Ireland. The question is no longer whether the scheme applies to you, but whether you’re handling it correctly.
This guide explains how auto-enrolment works, who needs to be enrolled, what employers have to contribute, and the practical steps needed to stay compliant.
Table of Contents:
- What auto-enrolment is
- Who gets enrolled
- What it costs
- What you actually have to do
- Opting out, and why it does not let you off the hook
- Auto-enrolment, or your own scheme?
- Why this matters for field service specifically
- The bottom line
- FAQs
What auto-enrolment is
My Future Fund is Ireland’s new workplace pension scheme for employees who don’t already have a pension through their job.
The aim is fairly straightforward. Hundreds of thousands of workers in Ireland currently have no private or occupational pension and are likely to rely largely on the State pension in retirement. Auto-enrolment is designed to change that by bringing eligible workers into a pension scheme automatically rather than expecting them to set one up themselves.
If an employee meets the qualifying criteria, they’re enrolled automatically and contributions start through payroll. The money comes from three places: the employee, the employer and the State.
For employees, the attraction is obvious. For every contribution they make, both the employer and the State add to the pot. For employers, it introduces a new payroll cost that simply didn’t exist before.
That makes the impact particularly noticeable in field service businesses. Many engineers, technicians and skilled tradespeople have spent years working as PAYE employees without being part of a workplace pension scheme. As a result, a large proportion of the workforce falls directly into the group that auto-enrolment was designed to reach.
Who gets enrolled
An employee is automatically enrolled if they meet all three of these conditions: they are aged between 23 and 60, they earn €20,000 or more a year, and they are not already paying into a pension through payroll.
Miss any one of those and the automatic enrolment does not apply, but there are details in each that matter for a trades business.
The age band excludes your younger apprentices and your older, semi-retired hands. A 21-year-old apprentice and a 62-year-old engineer winding down to a few days a week will not be enrolled automatically. They are not shut out, though. Anyone under 23, over 60, or earning under the threshold can choose to opt in, and here is the part employers need to register: if they opt in, you as the employer must contribute at the standard rate, the same as for anyone else. So the cost is not strictly limited to the 23-to-60 band. An apprentice who wants to start saving can bring you into the scheme for them.
The €20,000 threshold is assessed across all of a person’s employments, not just the job they do for you. Take a fitter who earns €15,000 from you and €10,000 from a second job. Neither job clears €20,000 on its own, but the combined €25,000 does, so they are enrolled, and each employer pays contributions on the share of pay they provide. If one of those jobs already runs a pension through payroll, that employment is exempt and only the other one is enrolled. NAERSA works all of this out from Revenue payroll data, so it is not something you assess yourself, but it does mean you cannot assume a part-timer is out of scope just because their wages from you look modest.
Two more points worth knowing. Enrolment applies from day one of employment, there is no probation waiting period, so a new engineer who meets the criteria is in straight away. The scheme also does not currently cover the self-employed or proprietary directors taxed under Class S, which means many owner-operators are outside it for now, even as their employees are inside it.
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What it costs
Contributions are phased in slowly over a decade, which softens the immediate blow but means the cost climbs on a fixed schedule you should plan for now.
For the first three years, from 2026 to the end of 2028, the employer pays 1.5% of the employee’s gross earnings, the employee pays 1.5%, and the State adds 0.5%. From 2029 the rates step up, reaching 6% from the employer, 6% from the employee, and 2% from the State by year ten. Contributions are calculated on gross pay up to a ceiling of €80,000 a year. From the employee’s side there is a simple way to see the appeal: for every €3 they put in, the employer adds €3 and the State adds €1, so €3 of their own money becomes €7 in the pot. From the employer’s side, that matching €3 is the cost to plan for.
To put a real number on it, take an engineer on €40,000. In the first phase your contribution as the employer is 1.5%, which is €600 a year for that one person. Multiply across a team and add the scheduled increases, and this becomes a line in your labour costs that grows. By the time the rates are fully phased in, that same €40,000 engineer costs you €2,400 a year in pension contributions. Planning for that trajectory now, rather than being surprised by it in 2029, is the sensible move.
There is some relief in the structure. Employer contributions are deductible against corporation tax, and they are not treated as a taxable benefit-in-kind for the employee, so the contribution does not create an income tax charge for your staff. It is still a genuine new cost, but it is a deductible one.
This sits on top of the other 2026 cost increases Irish employers are already absorbing: the minimum wage rose to €14.15 an hour in January, and PRSI rates step up again in October. For a labour-heavy field service business, these stack, and modelling the combined effect on your margins makes more sense than treating each in isolation. Our guide to understanding cost per job is a useful companion here, because rising employment costs only hurt if you do not know which jobs are actually carrying them.
What you actually have to do
The scheme was deliberately designed to keep the administrative load on employers light. You do not set up or run a pension fund, NAERSA does all of that. Your obligations fall into three areas.
First, payroll. The core duty is to make sure your payroll data is accurate and submitted to Revenue on time, because NAERSA uses that data to decide who is eligible. You do not work out who should be enrolled yourself. NAERSA assesses it from Revenue payroll data and sends you an instruction, the Auto-Enrolment Payroll Notification, or AEPN, through your payroll software, telling you which employees are in and what contribution percentages to apply. Your payroll process then deducts the employee’s contribution, adds your matching employer contribution, and remits both to NAERSA, which adds the State top-up.
The logic behind who is in and who is out is blunt, and you should understand it because it is the bit you control. If a pension deduction is already running through your payroll for someone, they are exempt from auto-enrolment for that pay period. If no pension deduction is running through payroll, they are in. It really is that binary. Modern payroll software handles the calculation and the AEPN automatically, but the responsibility for clean, timely data sits with you.
Second, the employer portal. You need to be set up to interact with NAERSA’s systems so enrolments, contributions, and any changes flow through correctly.
Third, communication. You are expected to keep your staff informed, to tell them when they have been enrolled, and to be able to answer the basic questions they will bring to you rather than to NAERSA.
The thread running through all three is the quality of your underlying records. Auto-enrolment is driven by payroll data, and payroll data in a field service business is only as good as the job and time records feeding it. If your engineers’ hours, jobs, and pay are captured cleanly and flow into payroll without manual re-keying, the auto-enrolment side largely takes care of itself. If your records are scattered across paper timesheets, spreadsheets, and memory, every payroll run becomes a chance for the kind of error that now has pension contributions riding on it. Proper job and time records captured in the field, feeding a single system, quietly remove a lot of that risk.
Failing to meet your obligations, whether that is enrolling people, deducting contributions, or remitting them, carries penalties, so this is not a scheme to leave half-done.
Opting out, and why it does not let you off the hook
Employees can opt out, but not immediately and not permanently, and the mechanics matter for how you plan.
A worker cannot opt out in the first six months. From the start of month seven through month eight, they have a window to opt out, and if they do, they get their own contributions back, though the employer and State contributions paid up to that point stay invested in their pot. After that window closes, they are in until the next cycle. The part that matters most: anyone who opts out is automatically re-enrolled two years later, and has to opt out again if they still do not want to participate. From an employer’s point of view, this means you cannot bank on opt-outs to reduce your costs. Some staff will leave, but the default is participation, the system actively pulls people back in, and you should budget on the assumption that most eligible employees stay enrolled.
One practical wrinkle worth flagging to staff: the opt-out and refund have to be done by the employee themselves, through NAERSA’s portal. It is not something you as the employer, or an accountant, can action on their behalf. Once someone is in the system, getting them back out is deliberately not frictionless, which is another reason participation tends to stick.
Auto-enrolment, or your own scheme?
Auto-enrolment is the default, not the only option, and some employers are actively choosing the alternative. If you run a pension scheme through payroll for an employee, they are exempt from My Future Fund, so a growing number of businesses are setting up their own occupational scheme and making it compulsory for new hires, specifically to stay out of the auto-enrolment churn.
This logic is worth grasping even if you decide auto-enrolment suits you fine. Under My Future Fund, if you contribute for an employee who then leaves after a few months, those employer contributions are gone, they sit in the worker’s pot. Under a conventional occupational scheme, employer contributions are typically retained if the employee leaves within two years. A bespoke scheme also gives you control over contribution levels, retirement age, and investment choice that auto-enrolment’s fixed, locked-in structure does not. For a business using pension provision to attract and keep good engineers in a tight labour market, that flexibility can matter.
None of this is a reason to rush into setting up your own scheme, and for many smaller field service businesses auto-enrolment will be the simpler, cheaper path. What matters is that you have a genuine decision to make rather than a fate to accept, and a conversation with your accountant or a pension advisor before defaulting either way will pay for itself. Either way, it is a financial decision specific to your business, not one to take from a blog post.
Why this matters for field service specifically
Auto-enrolment is a national scheme, but it bites harder in some sectors than others, and field service is one of the exposed ones.
It comes down to the workforce. Trades and field service businesses employ exactly the profile of worker the scheme targets: skilled PAYE employees, often without an existing pension, frequently in the €20,000 to €60,000 band where the contribution applies in full. A business with ten engineers is likely looking at ten enrolments, not two or three, so the cost tracks your headcount, and headcount is the whole business in this sector.
The apprentice angle adds a wrinkle. The sector runs on apprentices, many of them under 23 and therefore outside automatic enrolment, but able to opt in and pull you into contributing. As they age past 23 and their pay crosses the threshold, they roll into the scheme automatically. Workforce planning and pension cost are now linked in a way they were not before, and the skills shortage pressure that already shapes hiring decisions now carries a pension dimension too.
The casual-labour question is sharper here than in an office business. Field service work is seasonal and demand-led, so a lot of firms lean on part-time and casual hands during peak periods. The cross-employment earnings rule means some of those workers are in scope even when their wages from you look small, which connects directly to the employee versus subcontractor decision that growing field service businesses are already weighing. Auto-enrolment is one more factor on the employee side of that ledger.
None of this is a reason to panic. The first-phase rates are low, the cost is deductible, and the administration is genuinely lighter than running an occupational scheme. But it is a permanent new feature of employing people in Ireland, it grows on a schedule, and the businesses that handle it well will be the ones treating it as part of disciplined payroll and cost management rather than a surprise that surfaces at year end. If you want the wider picture on staying compliant as an Irish employer, our HR compliance guide covers the broader obligations that sit alongside this one.
The bottom line
My Future Fund is live, it applies to you if you employ eligible staff, and it is not optional. The immediate cost is modest, 1.5% of gross pay per eligible employee, but it rises every few years until it reaches 6%, and it stacks on top of the minimum wage and PRSI increases already hitting Irish employers in 2026.
The practical work is mostly about getting your payroll and records right, because the whole scheme runs on accurate, timely payroll data. Get that part disciplined, plan for the scheduled cost increases rather than reacting to them, and auto-enrolment becomes a manageable part of running the business rather than a recurring headache. The deadline has already passed. The task now is to make sure you are handling it properly.
This article is general guidance, not financial or legal advice. For your specific obligations, check the official information from the Department of Social Protection on gov.ie and NAERSA, or speak to your accountant or payroll provider.
FAQs
When did auto-enrolment start in Ireland?
My Future Fund launched on 1 January 2026. Eligible employees have been enrolled and contributions have been collected from that date. It is run by a State body, the National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority (NAERSA), under the Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Act 2024.
Who has to be enrolled in My Future Fund?
Employees are automatically enrolled if they are aged between 23 and 60, earn €20,000 or more a year across all their jobs, and are not already paying into a pension through payroll. Workers who fall outside those criteria, including apprentices under 23 and staff over 60, can choose to opt in, and if they do, the employer must contribute at the standard rate.
How much do employers have to contribute?
In the first phase, from 2026 to the end of 2028, employers contribute 1.5% of the employee’s gross earnings, matched by the employee, with a 0.5% State top-up. The rates rise in steps to 6% employer, 6% employee and 2% State by year ten. Contributions apply to gross pay up to €80,000 a year, and employer contributions are deductible against corporation tax.
Does auto-enrolment apply to apprentices?
Apprentices under 23 are not automatically enrolled, but they can opt in voluntarily, and if they do, the employer has to contribute for them at the standard rate. Once an apprentice turns 23 and earns above €20,000, they are enrolled automatically. Because the field service sector relies heavily on apprentices, this links workforce planning directly to pension cost.
What do employers actually have to do?
Three things: keep payroll data accurate and submitted to Revenue on time, since NAERSA uses it to determine eligibility and collect contributions; be set up to interact with NAERSA’s employer systems so enrolments and contributions flow correctly; and keep staff informed about their enrolment. You do not run a pension fund yourself, NAERSA handles that, but failing to enrol staff or remit contributions carries penalties.
Can employees opt out of My Future Fund?
Not in the first six months. Employees can opt out during months seven and eight and get their own contributions refunded, though the employer and State contributions stay invested in their pot. After that they remain enrolled until they are automatically re-enrolled two years later, when they must opt out again if they still do not want to take part. The opt-out has to be done by the employee through NAERSA’s portal, not by the employer. Because the system re-enrols people by default, employers should not rely on opt-outs to reduce their costs.
Can an employer set up its own pension scheme instead of auto-enrolment?
Yes. If an employee has a pension running through payroll, they are exempt from My Future Fund, so some employers set up their own occupational scheme and make it compulsory for new hires to stay out of auto-enrolment. A bespoke scheme can let you retain employer contributions if someone leaves within two years and gives more control over contribution rates and investment choice. It is a genuine financial decision that depends on your business, so take advice from an accountant or pension advisor rather than defaulting either way.
