Dan Neville
Question:94 Mr. Neville asked the Minister for Education and Science the situation with regard to the proposed changes to pension terms for new entrants to the public service. [12756/04]
View answerWednesday, 5 May 2004
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The position is that the Public Service Superannuation Act was passed into law on 25 March. It provides that the minimum age at which pension will be paid to the generality of new entrants to the public service, including teachers, will be 65. It also abolishes compulsory retirement on grounds of age in the case of new entrants. The Act defines the term "new entrant". While the definition is complex, broadly-speaking, a new entrant is a person who takes up employment in the public service on or after 1 April 2004 and whose last employment in the public service, if any, terminated more than 26 weeks earlier. Going forward, a person who is not a new entrant but whose employment in the public service terminates and who does not return to employment in the public service within a period of 26 weeks will, on such return, become a new entrant.
The Act provides that employees in certain sectors of the public service must continue to retire before age 65. These are sectors where, unlike the provision for the majority of public servants including teachers retirement before 65 has always been required for operational reasons. The sectors in question comprise the Defence Forces, the Garda, the prison service and the fire service. The reforms which have been enacted arose from consideration by Government of the recommendations of the commission on public service pensions. Apart from the reforms enacted, the Minister for Finance also announced in his Budget Statement that the Government had decided to implement the bulk of the commission's recommendations. A joint management-union group, which includes representatives of the INTO, has been established as a forum within which practical aspects of the implementation of the commission's recommendations can be discussed. The group has already met on a number of occasions and further meetings are planned.