74. Deputy Eoin Hayes asked the Minister for Social Protection when his Department will establish, and make publicly available, the administration fees and charges being imposed as a part of auto-enrolment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62261/25]

Sentiment score: -0.11

My question is about administration fees and charges being imposed as part of auto-enrolment. My understanding is that these fees have not been agreed or released publicly. I have some reservations more widely about whether it is still the case today that the Department and Government are sufficiently prepared when this scheme goes live, which is just a few short weeks away, as the Minister said yesterday.

Sentiment score: -0.11

I thank the Minister. I very much hope the fees will be under 0.1% of assets under management. It would be extremely concerning if they were anywhere near that. My understanding from the Minister’s answer is that the fees have not been detailed, and this goes to the heart of the question of whether the State is adequately prepared to introduce auto-enrolment on 1 January as the Minister said today he would be doing. As it stands, about €100 billion of pensions are in private occupational pension schemes. The Minister is planning on the State mandating a significant increase to that without there being any clarity on the fees for those affected. Importantly, in the UK, about 75% of the accounts of the national employment savings trust, NEST, scheme are dormant. If these fees are charged on the dormant accounts, it will compound the reduction of the contributions the individuals have made. It would be very concerning if this were to be the case here as well. If the My Future Fund mirrors what is happening with the NEST fund, it would create a huge problem for individuals. The fund in the UK currently has a deficit of £1 billion and we have lower economies of scale here. Does the Minister have any comparison with the UK experience and does he understand whether the fees will be applied to the dormant accounts?

Sentiment score: 0.18

That goes to the heart of the question here, which is around the digital literacy of the individuals we are putting into this scheme. I am very concerned there is no plan for what we are going to guide people with in terms of the lump sum they will get at the end of the scheme. For those people in their 50s or 60s approaching retirement age who will get that lump sum, there seems to be no pathway to how they would account for the pension provision or ensure they are not taking risky decisions or making inappropriate use of those funds. There is also a question around the overall structure of the fund and I want to keep an eye on that over the course of its implementation. I completely accept the NTMA could not handle 750,000 individuated pension scheme accounts. There is a question, however, around the pooling of risk. How will it be possible to ensure those 750,000 individuated accounts would be treated as a larger pension scheme guided by the State so it will be possible to ensure there will be lower volatility for investment returns for those individuals and the pension provision is secure for the future?

Sentiment score: 0.12