In announcing the Government's decision on pension age and on the intended abolition of compulsory retirement age for most new entrant public servants from 1 April 2004, the Minister for Finance stated that the public service unions would be fully informed about the implementation of the reforms in advance of their introduction with effect from 1 April 2004. I confirm that the process of informing the public service unions has commenced and that a number of meetings have already taken place between the unions, including the INTO, and officials of the Department of Finance, my Department and other Departments. As the Government has taken its decision about the retirement age of new entrants, and as a forum has been put in place, I do not see that any useful purpose would be served at this time by a meeting such as that suggested by the Deputy.
While pension benefits are a consideration in career choices, I do not consider that the changes made are likely to give rise to any particular difficulty in the recruitment of teachers. All public service jobs will have the same retirement age for new entrants, with the exception of those groups — gardaí, members of the Defence Forces, prison officers and fire-fighters — which have earlier retirement for operational reasons. I emphasise that the raising of the age of retirement will not affect serving public servants. It will not come into operation generally until public servants recruited since 1 April 2004 begin to reach the age of 65.