Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 March 2019
154. Deputy Seán Haughey asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his plans to abolish parity-based public service pension schemes and replace them with pension schemes linked to the consumer price index; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10419/19]
View answerI have no plans to abolish existing public service pension schemes. In accordance with the policy adopted when the Single Pension Scheme (SPS) was introduced for new entrants to the public service from 1 January 2013 onwards, pre-existing pension schemes will continue to apply to public servants who are not members of the SPS.
As the member may be aware, the SPS is a career average pension scheme which provides that both the referable amounts that are accrued by serving staff while in employment, as well as pensions in payment, are uprated in line with changes in the consumer price index.
The legislation that introduced the SPS includes a provision that allows for the extension to the pre-existing pension schemes of the policy of uprating pensions in line with changes in the consumer price index.
As part of the Government’s commitment under the Public Service Stability Agreement 2018-2020, the pension increase policy that is currently in place in respect of the pre-existing pension schemes represents a time-limited (expires end-2020), conditions-bound return to the non-statutory, pay-linked method of pension adjustment which prevailed until the onset of the financial emergency.
