The new pension auto-enrolment system will cost the Government €2.8 billion over ten years.
Around 750,000 workers without a pension will be automatically signed up for a pension at the start of 2024.
Employers will have to match employee contributions while the State will also top up the fund.
Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys says having engaged with businesses she believes it will be affordable:
"It was initially planned for a much shorter term, and they said 'that's much too short. We need a longer time to bring this in.'
"When you think about it, it's 1.5% every three years. Now when you look over the next 10 years, I'm sure that wages will go up by more than 1,.5% every three years.
"This gets built into the system - it eventually comes into the system."
