Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is a matter for the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in respect of how it manages State funding and the State investments it has. We make the case each year to the central pool of financial resources available to the State for an Army pensions current expenditure Vote, and in recent years, we have been successful. I take the point that this approach is taken regularly within the private sector, but that is not how public sector pensions work given the guarantees arising from defined benefit pension schemes.

Deputy Stanton asked about abatement of retirement pensions where someone rejoins the public sector. From 1 November 2012, where public servants retire on a pension and take up a new job anywhere within the public service, their retirement pension may be reduced or suspended for as long as they remain in that job. This is called pension abatement. For practical purposes, this means a person's combined earnings from the current public service job as well as from his or her existing public service pension cannot exceed the current equivalent of his or her pensionable pay from the first job. This measure was introduced with effect from 1 November 2012 under the Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Act 2012 and applies without exception to all public service pension schemes, including the new single scheme. A pensioner already in public service employment immediately before that date is not affected by the change while he or she remains in that post or position. The measure does not apply to employment with the commercial semi-State bodies.

Before the 2012 change, the abatement principle operated as a standard feature of the public service pension schemes generally, but only within individual sectors where a public service pensioner resumed working in his or her former job, such as the Defence Forces, Garda, Civil Service and so on. The 2012 Act extended the principle to all sectors without exception, thereby restoring the arrangements that had been in place until 1965. Any change of status since 1 November 2012 constitutes a new job. Those not subject to pension abatement in respect of their current job, such as because they were appointed before that date, will be subject to abatement if, after that date, they secure a new post through promotion.