Auto-enrolment pensions will have worse outcomes for women, Irish Life chief claims

Under the plan, some 750,000 workers, aged 23 to 60 who earn over €20,000, will be automatically enrolled in a private pension scheme through a new agency called the Central Processing Authority at the beginning of 2024.

The Government’s plans to introduce an auto-enrolment pension scheme will have worse outcomes for women and widen the pensions’ gender gap, an Oireachtas committee has heard.

Addressing the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Social Protection, Irish Life chief executive Declan Bolger said the Government’s heads of bill on the proposed system “remain silent on a number of key aspects” and workers who will be auto-enrolled onto a pension scheme are “being asked to provide contributions with no certainty as to how they will access their money in future”.