Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

While I have explained what will happen by the end of 2020, of course the kind of amelioration a pensioner will get will depend on when he or she retired. That is where the complication kicks in. Broadly, by the end of 2020, anybody who has a pension of between €50,000 and €53,000 will have the public service pension reduction eliminated. By the time we get to next year, anybody who has a pension of approximately €34,500 will see the public service pension reduction eliminated. I want to make a point about the average pension levels out there. For reasons we are all familiar with, much of the public focus and debate tends to centre on higher-value pensions. It is worth knowing that in 2017, the average pension paid to existing pensioners was €23,800. That is a very valuable pension in the context of the difficulties being experienced in private pension schemes and the status of those schemes, but it is very different from the figures mentioned in public debate, which tends to foster a belief that public sector pensions are worth multiples of that amount. That is not the case. It has to be recognised that the pension payments of people who are on the more recently established pension schemes will be co-ordinated. They will get the non-contributory State pension and their pension payment on top of that. This approach will be taken to get them to a certain level. Unlike people who would have been in receipt of pensions up to 1995, they will not get their pension and the non-contributory State pension on top of it. Both payments are combined to get retirees to a certain point. When we were negotiating the current agreement, I was very conscious of the need to be aware of the reality of pension payments for people who are retired.