Vol. 491 No. 3
261 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to the fact that an upper age limit of 55 is being applied widely in the public service; and the steps, if any, he will take to end this systematic age discrimination. [12289/98]
As Minister for Finance my responsibility for the matters raised in the Deputy's question is confined to the Civil Service; it does not extend to the wider public service.
Up until the early 1990s, the upper age limit for recruitment to many general service grades in the Civil Service ranged from 20 to 30 years. This was raised to 50 years in 1991, arising from a commitment in the Programme for Economic and Social Progress, PESP. At the same time, and again arising from the PESP commitment, age limits in many open competitions for professional and departmental grades in the Civil Service were also raised to 50 years.
This 50 year limit has now itself lapsed, and in general, upper age limits will no longer apply to recruitment to the Civil Service. This new departure reflects my determination to align policy in this area with the terms of the Employment Equality Bill, 1997, which is currently before the Oireachtas. The Bill prohibits age discrimination in recruitment between the ages of 18 and 65, subject to certain limited exceptions. These exceptions allow age limits to be set: where there is clear actuarial or other evidence that significantly increased costs would arise if the age limits were not imposed, to take account of any cost or period of time involved in training a recruit to a standard at which the recruit will be effective in the job, or to take account of the need for there to be a reasonable period of time prior to retirement age during which the recruit will be effective in the job.
