Mr. Jamie Bray:

I was in the first class that joined post-2013. I joined ten years ago now in September 2013. By way of example, I joined at 20 years of age. If I serve my entire career there, I will be kicked out of the organisation at 58 years of age because that is the mandatory retirement age. My pension will be approximately €25,000 at that stage. If the Defence Forces want to increase the mandatory retirement age, that will not change anything. Since it is based on career average earnings, it is the case that it will probably add an extra €1,000 to €2,000 maximum if they increase the pension age. The system does not work to allow people to just keep on increasing their age. If that is the case, I may as well keep increasing my age to build up enough of a pension that I can live off, which would mean I will have to keep working until the age of 70 or so, which does not make it fast accrual.

The Senator asked about the rank at which people are leaving. Since I was the first class on the rank of captain, there will be no one above the rank of captain. The maximum rank at which anyone can leave at the moment will be captain or lieutenant. That is quite a short career before a person decides to leave, which is quite disheartening.