Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 20 October 2004
281 Ms Enright asked the Minister for Education and Science the average life expectancy of secondary teachers retiring under the secondary teachers superannuation scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25691/04]
View answerThe specific information sought by the Deputy on average life expectancy of secondary teachers retiring is not available since my Department has not undertaken such a study. The Commission on Public Service Pensions, in its final report in November 2000, considered the issue of life expectancy generally. The commission noted that no public service mortality tables were available and considered standard tables of mortality published by the Institute of Actuaries and the Faculty of Actuaries and projections on life expectancy carried out by the Central Statistics Office.
The CSO projections showed that in 1996 the life expectancy of women aged 65 was 17.3 years whereas the life expectancy of men was 13.5 years. Life expectancy generally is increasing and the corresponding life expectancy in 2006 for a 65 year old was projected to be 18.3 years for women and 14.2 years for men.
In projecting the future costs of public service pensions, the commission assumed life expectancy at age 65 of 20.3 years for women and 16.5 years for men.
