Ireland’s Minister for Social Protection, Heather Humphreys, has said that she plans to present a full memo on auto-enrolment plans to the government in the next two weeks.

As reported by the Irish Times, speaking at a press conference on Monday 21 February, Humphreys said the government intends to launch the scheme by the end of 2023, but there is a “good deal of work” to be done.

“This is something that I’m totally committed to. A lot of work has been done on it. I have already brought it to the cabinet sub-committee and I will be bringing a full memo to government in the next two weeks.”

Humphreys said it will “take a while to set it up” and it will require legislation. She said “the target is by the end of 2023 it’ll be up and running” and she expects to make an announcement on this “very shortly”.

On a separate note, Humphreys said there are “difficult decisions” to be on the state pension age. According to the paper, she said the Commission on Welfare and Taxation is due to deliver a report on the Pensions Commission’s proposals at the end of the month and the cabinet will make a decision on the future of the pension age.

Currently, there are four and a half people working per pensioner but by 2050 there will be just two people working per pensioner, which Humphreys said is not sustainable.

“It’s a complex issue. There’s a lot of difficult decisions to make here. There’s no easy choices. You can’t cherry-pick what you like and leave out the bits you don’t like. There’s decisions to be made, and they will be made,” she stated.

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