Social Welfare and Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System (Amendment) Bill 2025: Second Stage
Dail Éireann — 2025-11-12
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Dara Calleary (FF), Mayo

It is a year. If it were a month, that would be gross earnings of €20,000 to €80,000 a month, so I presume he is talking about annual contributions. That €300 becomes €700 for the participant after the employer and the State contribution. That is put aside for their future.
Deputy Stanley spoke of the exclusion of people earning under €20,000 from AE and the exclusion of part-time workers. It is possible for those workers to opt in. The reason they were not being automatically enrolled is affordability. If they have a number of part-time jobs that reach the threshold, they can choose to be enrolled.
I thank all the Deputies. We will have Committee Stage next week and we will have further engagement. I once again emphasise that I can make any officials available - and I commend Deputy O'Reilly, who has taken up this offer on several occasions - to brief on automatic enrolment. It is a major step change, but the officials in my Department have been more than generous with their time and expertise. I encourage every party to follow Deputy O'Reilly's proactivity in this space. We will brief them. They might not like the answers but we will absolutely give them the information. I commend the Bill to the House.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-11-12/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:05+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-11-12