The Government has announced the appointment of the CEO, Chair and Board members of the body that will run the new pension auto-enrolment scheme.
The National Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority (NAERSA) will administer ‘My Future Fund’ which is being set to up to help people to save and invest for their retirement.
Dermot Griffin, a former CEO of the National Lottery, has been announced as the CEO of NAERSA.
Roma Burke, an actuary and former Chair of the Pensions Council, has been announced as Chair of NAERSA.
NAERSA will handle the bulk of the administration of the auto-enrolment scheme by determining eligibility and enrolling eligible employees.
It will also collect all employee, employer and State contributions, and invest the money on participants’ behalf.
The new appointments follow a recruitment process run by PublicJobs, the Public Appointments Service.
“I really believe that all of the successful candidates being announced today are ideal for the positions, and truly a case of the sum of their parts coming together to make sure that NAERSA will be successful in its goals of administering My Future Fund,” said Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary.
The Government has also announced the appointment of six Board members – Professor Alan Barrett, Tony Donohoe, Patricia King, Brian Murphy, Orlaigh Quinn, and Mary Walsh.
Ms King is a former General Secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and ICTU has welcomed her appointment to the board.
“Having worked alongside Patricia over many years, I can think of no better worker representative to have on the board,” said Owen Reidy, ICTU General Secretary.
“The interests of auto-enrolment participants are in safe hands,” Mr Reidy said.
ICTU said Ms King has waived the €12,600 annual fee and will not be taking the travel and subsistence allowances she is eligible for.
The My Future Fund scheme is designed to help over 800,000 workers to begin saving for their retirement.
From 1 January, employees not already in an occupational pension scheme, aged between 23 and 60 and earning over €20,000 across all of their employments, will be automatically enrolled in the new scheme.
It will be gradually phased in over a decade, with both employer and employee contributions starting at 1.5% and increasing every three years by 1.5% until they eventually reach 6% by year ten.
The State will top up contributions by €1 for every €3 saved by the employee. This is in addition to the €3 that will also be contributed by the employer.
Eligible employees will be automatically enrolled but will have the choice after six months participation to opt-out or suspend participation.