Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In regard to the grace period issue, we have had various grace periods. I will not mention them by name but one RTE correspondent outside a hospital on the first grace period night was expecting Y2K to happen, everyone to down tools and a mass exodus of people. However, that did not happen. We have done something unique in terms of cutting people's pay. People have had 40 year careers with an expectation of a pension at the end of it. There was an immediate burden in regard to the actual take home pay they were getting and that we would reduce the impact of that on the pension into which they paid over 40 years. That is why we had the grace period in the first instance. I mention those who were not caught by the grace period but who were still caught by the Financial Measures in the Public Interest Act 2013. People within the grace period between now and 2016 will, if their pay is impacted - if their pension is more than €32,500 - be caught by the Financial Measures in the Public Interest Act 2013 on their actual pension calculation. That is fair because the Deputy may remember, we mirrored the reduction for those in salary of €65,000 with a proportionate reduction for those in pension of €32,500.

In terms of the legal mechanism to do it, I am empowered by the Financial Measures in the Public Interest Act 2013 to do so and it will be done by way of statutory instrument, which I will lay before the House.

In terms of the discussion we had before Christmas on the quantum of money – I know the Deputy is not making a big deal of it – in essence, it was not the numbers who retired that changed but it was the appropriations-in-aid we got. We did not have an exact calculation on the amount of net money that would come in from pension contributions under the single pension scheme. It was actually greater than we expected.