Welcome to day 9 of our 12 Days of Christmas series. Today we look back on the Government’s proposals relating to the introduction of Ireland’s auto-enrolment pension system. Today we look back on the Government’s proposals relating to the introduction of Ireland’s auto-enrolment pension system.
Auto-Enrolment Plan’s Goal may be Laudable but it Poses Major Challenges
The Government’s consultation on auto-enrolment was launched in August 2018. At that time, we outlined some of the key aspects of these proposals in the uniquely named ‘Strawman Public Consultation Process for an Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Scheme for Ireland’ (the “Strawman”). The consultation closed on 4 November 2018. On 26 November, Ian Devlin (Head of Pensions) commented on some of the major challenges facing the Strawman, including:
- the impact auto-enrolment may have on employers with existing schemes;
- the aggressive rate of proposed auto-escalation of contributions from 1% to 6%;
- the complexity of the State incentives proposed; and
- the expected difficulties with the “carousel” method of allocating providers.
The Government has proposed that the final design of this auto-enrolment system will be published by the first quarter of 2019, with implementation due in 2022. We will be providing updates as they arise on these proposals next year.
Our full original article is available on the link here and William Fry’s Pensions Partner Ian Devlin’s full commentary on the Strawman is available here.
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