51yr old, 6 months of mortgage left.

No, I got the 5k out of the Credit Union, it will be in my account tomorrow. I need to call the broker as at this point I am not really sure how the rest of this works.
 
No, I got the 5k out of the Credit Union, it will be in my account tomorrow. I need to call the broker as at this point I am not really sure how the rest of this works.
It should be
  1. Make the lump sum contribution
  2. Get the necessary documentation from the pension provider/broker (not sure if it's still a PRSA1 cert or something else these days?)
  3. Go online to Revenue (myAccount if PAYE, ROS if self-assessed) and claim the tax relief in respect of 2022 - you'll probably be asked to uploaded the aforementioned doc.
  4. If you're PAYE/myAccount then you have up to October 31st to do this - if self-assessed/ROS then up to 15th November
 
The OP said his Annual Income was 45k. This only allows 5k to be claimed at the top whack.
It's still worthwhile in the OP's circumstances.

If he managed to build a pension pot of, say, €400k by 65 he could effectively extract the whole lot tax-free by taking advantage of the 25% tax-free lump sum, annual allowances, etc.
 
I've paid for 2022 today and claimed it online, once the funds arrive I'll start looking at 2023 and what's left of the mortgage. Thanks for the advice all.