Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am required to specify a date under the Act. What is envisaged here is that if someone retires in the shadow of the grace period, his or her pension calculation can be determined at the pre-FEMPI cut. The most recent FEMPI cut was in the 2013 Act. I have obviously had a great deal of discussion with colleagues, particularly in both the health and education sectors, who want to give certainty to people. I have been contacted by individual unions on extending the grace period to facilitate people to continue in work up to the normal retirement age who are within a year or two of retirement and would like to continue working but feel obliged to retire early to take advantage of the grace period. On balance, that was the right thing to do. I gave consideration to extending it permanently so that there would not be a deadline per se, but I would have to change primary statute to do so.