A further delay to the start of auto-enrolment (AE) in Ireland until early 2026 would not be surprising, PensionsEurope chair and Irish Association of Pension Funds CEO, Jerry Moriarty, has said.

Speaking during a European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) webinar, Moriarty noted that while the start date for AE in Ireland is currently scheduled for the end of September 2025, that has moved "quite a bit in recent times".

"Until very recently, it was due to start early in 2025," he noted, "I think 30 September is certainly more realistic, but I wouldn't be surprised if that moved to the beginning of 2026, just considering what still needs to be done."

In particular, Moriarty said that legislation to allow drawdown from the auto-enrolment scheme could be one issue to be addressed before the new system launches.

Moriarty explained that the AE system will have the same payout options as existing DC schemes, which, currently, allows savers to take an element as tax free cash to purchase an annuity, or transfer it to an individual retail product and approved retirement fund.

However, he said that legislation to allow drawdown from the existing scheme is expected to be in place by the time AE is implemented, with the Irish Pensions Authority recently announcing plans to look at introducing the option for in-scheme drawdown as part of its future plan.

Given this, Moriarty suggested that the AE system will likely "do something similar", where options will be offered to members so they don't have to switch to retail products.

"One of the reasons those savers are being auto-enrolled is because they're not going to make those types of decisions themselves," he continued, "and if they're used to having decisions made throughout the accumulation stage, they're not going to appreciate having to make difficult decisions when it comes to decumulation."

"It's not clear that [we'll have this] by the end of September next year, but I am pretty confident that certainly by the end of the beginning of 2026, we should be up and running and finally have auto-enrolment in place," Moriarty added.

More broadly, Moriarty praised the naming of the programme, My Future Fund, for providing a link to the individual, and instilling a sense of ownership around pensions.

He stated: "One of the problems in getting people to engage with pensions is quite often they feel like it's nothing to do with them - it's something to do with their employer, and they don't really understand it.

"In the Australian system people do really see it as their fund... they seem like they feel a bit more ownership of it, so I think that is really important part in getting success from My Future Fund."

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