This release is categorised as a CSO Frontier Series Output. Particular care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this release as it may use new methods which are under development and/or data sources which may be incomplete, for example new administrative data sources. For further information on the data sources, linking procedures and limitations of this report, see the Background Notes section.
Personal Retirement Savings Accounts (PRSAs) were introduced to the Irish market in 2002 with the aim of encouraging people to supplement their State Pension through a personal savings and investment plan. PRSAs offer a flexible savings vehicle meaning you can increase, decrease or stop your contributions at any time without any charge or penalty. Contributions can be made as once off payments or through regular contributions. Many employers also facilitate regular contributions through payroll deductions and provide an employer PRSA contribution in their terms of employment. PRSAs were designed to be easily transferred from job to job and employers who do not have an occupational pension scheme for their employees must provide access to at least one standard PRSA.
There are two types of PRSA: standard and non-standard. A standard PRSA has the following features:
Non-standard PRSAs have the following features:
Pension contributions attract income tax relief at the marginal rate although contributions are subject to an age-related earnings percentage limit (starting at 15% for individuals aged under 30, rising to 40% for those over 60) and a total earnings limit. There is also an overall limit on the total value of an individual’s pension fund, known as the Standard Fund Threshold.
During the period covered in this release (2019 to 2024) a number of legislative changes were enacted or commenced. An EU Directive on the activities and supervision of institutions for occupational retirement provision (IORP II) was transposed into Irish law in 2021. In 2022, a legislative change to PRSAs removed the age-related tax relief limits and benefit-in-kind liability to employer contributions. A restriction on access to PRSAs to only those under age 75 was removed in 2023. Legislation in 2024, commenced in 2025, introduced a tax relief limit of 100% of salary on employer contributions, with any employer contributions above this limit taxed as benefit-in-kind.
PRSA providers collate PRSA Schedule B data in a three-monthly return supplied to the Pensions Authority. In this analysis the fourth quarter data is used as the reference quarter for the number of contributors and associated assets in a given reporting year. Further methodological details can be found in the Background Notes.
For the purposes of this analysis a contributor is defined as one person with one PRSA type (either standard or non-standard). If a person has both types of PRSA they will be counted as two separate contributors. Where a person has multiple contracts of a single PRSA type, the assets associated with each contract are combined.
The total number of contributors to all PRSAs increased from 184,755 in 2019 to 258,168 in 2024, an increase of 73,413 or 40%.
Most of this increase, 51,866 contributors, occurred during 2023 and 2024. Of the new contributors in these two years, 66% started non-standard PRSAs.
The total PRSA assets value at year-end is comprised of personal and employer contributions, and investment growth.
Between 2019 and 2024 the total PRSA assets value increased from €7.3bn to €18.3bn. The largest change in a single year was seen in 2024 when the total assets increased by €6.4bn compared to 2023. Of this increase €1.4bn was in standard PRSAs and €5.0bn was in non-standard PRSAs.
The total assets value of new contributors to all PRSAs were €398M in 2019, increasing to €489M in 2022. There was then a significant increase in the assets value of new contributors to non-standard PRSAs in 2023 (€1.9bn) and 2024 (€3.3bn).
The overall median PRSA assets value ranged from €14,469 in 2022 to €18,640 in 2024. In each reporting year the median non-standard PRSA assets value was greater than that of standard PRSAs, with the greatest difference being €9,196 in 2021.
The difference in median assets value between standard and non-standard PRSAs for new contributors was more pronounced, with the greatest difference being €11,717 greater for non-standard PRSAs in 2019.
Median PRSA assets value is not an appropriate measure for identifying trends in the PRSA market. This is because PRSAs are investments, the value of which can go up or down, and the mix of contributor attributes such as age, length of time since a PRSA started, and access to other pensions savings vehicles can change over time.
The proportion of new contributors to non-standard PRSAs grew from 26.4% in 2019 to 70.4% in 2024. The biggest change occurred in 2023, when 60.2% of new contributors had non-standard PRSAs, compared to 36% in 2022.
For all contributors the proportion of non-standard PRSAs increased from 25.4% in 2019 to 36.8% in 2024.
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