So for every €3 an employee contributes, they will receive a further €4 into their pension pot.
The added incentives are aimed at encouraging workers to remain in the scheme by reducing their costs of saving for retirement. 

Detailed examples of projected earnings for different life and work situations can be found in the Department of Social Protection document, The Design Principles for Ireland’s Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System. 

Opting in/out option: All eligible employees will be automatically enrolled in the scheme. 

However, participation is optional and operates on an opt-out basis.
Employees who have been automatically enrolled can choose to opt out or suspend their participation after six months.
Those who opt out will be auto-enrolled after two years have elapsed and they can opt out again after another six months.
If an employee opts out, they’ll receive a refund of their (employee) contributions, but employer and state contributions will remain in their pot.
Members will be able to pause their contributions after 6 months of saving, suspending their contributions for a maximum of two years.
They won’t receive a refund on what they’ve saved so far and can restart their saving at any time before the auto-restart.
Choice of funds: Employees will have a choice of four retirement savings funds to choose from, depending on the level of risk they prefer.
Three of these funds will have differing risk/return profiles comprising a conservative fund, a moderate risk fund and a higher risk fund.
The fourth option – a ‘life-style/life-cycle’ investment profile – will be the default fund provided if the employee doesn’t express a preference.
Moving jobs: The scheme will be set up on a ‘pot follows the member’ basis, so an employee’s pension is not linked to their employment but follows them as they move jobs.
This means workers will not have to join a new scheme each time they change employer and those who have more than one employment will have their pension savings combined into one pot. 

Participants of the new scheme will be able to access their account via an online portal run by the CPA.
They’ll be able to view account balances, contributions and investment returns and update information or suspend their payments.
When will the auto-enrolment scheme begin?: Legislation and processes will be implemented from now, with the launch of the scheme and paid contributions to start from January 2025. Contributions will be gradually phased in over 10 years, with employee and employer payments beginning at a modest level of 1.5% and increasing every three years by 1.5% until they reach 6%.