Vol. 512 No. 4
127 Ms O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Finance the plans, if any, he has to change the rules whereby a person cannot retire and take up a pension before the age of 60 in view of the fact that some civil servants will have served their 40 years before reaching their 60th birthday; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26381/99]
As the Deputy may be aware, the minimum retirement age for the generality of public servants is 60. Claims for a reduction in that age have traditionally been rejected on a number of grounds, including the cost of such a reduction, the fact that 60 has been the norm in the public service for well over a century, that 65 is the normal minimum retiring age in the private sector and that the trend in European administrations is to increase rather than reduce retiring ages.
A reduction in the retiring age of civil servants would be very expensive. For example, a pension based on 40 years service payable from age 58 would be about 10% more expensive than one payable from age 60. It also has to be borne in mind that, without any improvement in the existing terms, the cost of public service pensions is projected to quadruple from £636 million to some £2,522 million by 2037.
However, I would point out that all aspects of public service pensions, including retirement age, are being considered by the Commission on Public Service Pensions which is expected to report shortly.
