Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 12 April 2017
246. Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he examined possible leeway for those who are denied full pension restoration and found to be marginally over the threshold of €34,132 as part of pay restoration; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18607/17]
View answerI believe that the Deputy is referring to those public service pensions which have been awarded in respect of retirements up to end-February 2012, and whose value before the application of the Public Service Pension Reduction (PSPR) is marginally greater than €34,132.
Such pensions will remain subject to PSPR when the three-stage part-reversal of PSPR provided for in the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2015 is fully in place from 1 January 2018. However, the continued application of PSPR to such pensions from then on will be subject to Section 6(1)(b) of the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act (FEMPI) 2015.
In effect this provision means that all relevant pensions with pre-PSPR values ranging from just above the threshold amount of €34,132 up to €34,695 will have PSPR applied from 1 January 2018 in a manner whereby pensions in that value range will thereby be protected against falling below €34,132 in terms of post-PSPR value.
Further explanation and technical details of this provision as it applies to relevant pensions with pre-PSPR values marginally greater than €34,132 is given in paragraph 8(ii) of Department of Public Expenditure and Reform Circular 18/2015: "Changes to the Public Service Pension Reduction (PSPR)" at http://circulars.gov.ie/pdf/circular/per/2015/18.pdf.
