The new National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority (NAERSA) has said all employers are obliged to register this month, by logging in to the new portal using their Revenue Online Service (ROS) credentials, even if they do not have staff falling into the My Future Fund itself.
However, a number of employers that do not yet have employees eligible for enrolment have been unable to register because the Department and NAERSA are operating very tight data controls, the Department said.
Employers need to check their details in the system, including if any of their employees have been assessed as eligible.
Some employers have also had difficulty registering where incorrect ROS certs were used, the Department said.
Employers are obliged to register their details on the portal, which opened on December 1, by the end of the month.
The details include the company’s trading name, what sector it operates in, its number of employees and you must register a contact name.
The stakes are high for employers, who face fines of up to €50,000 and imprisonment for breaching the rules of the new national auto-enrolment pension scheme.
Potential fines for infringements of the legislation range from €5,000 to €50,000, depending on the offence.
As of yesterday morning (December 10) over 30,000 employers had registered on the portal, with 14,000 of those registrations over the previous two days, the Department said.
That represents over 375,000 employees.
Under the auto-enrolment scheme, impacted employees will pay 1.5pc of their gross income into a personal retirement savings fund and employers will have to match it, from January 1. The State will add another 0.5pc.
Contributions will rise after four years with further progressive increases until year 10, when worker and employer will put in 6pc each and the State 2pc.
The scheme has been promised by governments for over a decade. Only one in three private-sector workers have supplementary pension coverage.
Earlier this week the largest accountancy body in the State warned members of potential data breach risks if giving individuals access the portal means they have access to potentially sensitive staff information.