Ninety-two per cent of employers and 700,000 employees have been signed up for the auto-enrolment pension scheme for private-sector employees that started on January 1st.

Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary told the Dáil how 94,062 employers and 700,256 employees were registered and €14.47 million had been collected to date.

The My Future Fund auto enrolment State scheme applies to workers aged between 23 and 60 and earning more than €20,000 if they are not already a member of a private pension scheme.

The employer contributes the same amount as the employee and the State makes a top-up payment.

Mr Calleary said “portals are available to employers and will be available to employees in the coming fortnight to access a range of services and to check on their accounts”.

The contact centre, open since December 1st, had dealt with 4,620 calls and 3,748 online chats, he said. About 57 per cent were from employers, 21 per cent from participants and 15 per cent from agents, he said.

Sinn Féin social protection spokeswoman Louise O’Reilly said that between 70,000 and 80,000 people were not covered, but people had clearly heard about the scheme and signed up.

She expressed concern held by senior managers of State-funded agencies providing public services as these were also obliged to contribute to employees’ pensions.

Ms O’Reilly, a former trade union organiser, said she did not often come into the Dáil to “stand up for management”. However, “their funding was not increased but their obligation had”, she said.

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Senior managers in State-funded organisations wanted to know “if they had to make a choice between services and pension, where the Minister wants them to make that cut”.

She said they wanted their workers to be in a pension scheme. “They equally want to be able to provide the services.”

The Minister said he “obviously” did not want any chief executive to be in that position.

He raised the issue across a range of Government departments and State agencies, including Revenue and the Attorney General, and would continue to engage with them.

His officials had also raised it at secretary general-level with every department about “the responsibilities of agencies under auto-enrolment”.

But he said: “We cannot dictate the budget allocations for other departments.”