Dr. Orlaigh Quinn:

There is a new pension scheme for new entrants to the public sector and the retirement age is set at State pension age. Therefore, as the State pension age moves up, the age of retirement will move up. Depending on the time at which they entered, some public servants have no age of retirement and could work indefinitely, while it is set at 70 years for others. It depends on the time at which they entered and the arrangements they have in place. When they leave, if there is a gap before their pension is paid, the employer has discretion to pay a bridging pension. Many employees retire at 60 years and receive their pension, but they are required to sign on for these years. It is not just an issue for those aged 65 and 66 years. This has been happening for many years as people retired as part of their contractual arrangements at 60 years, but the employer made up the difference in their pension. A significant number of public sector workers leave early owing to their contractual arrangements, but again, typically, they sign on for jobseeker's allowance and the employer - in this case the public sector - makes up the difference.

Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh referred to youth employment. There is no relationship between young and older workers. They are not transferable from one to the other and all of our OECD research suggests this. We are moving to a situation where we will have fewer than two people per pensioner working and our older population will be needed in the workforce because the position will not be sustainable. Currently, there are 5.3 workers to every pensioner and the number is heading towards 2.3. All of the work we are trying to do is aimed at trying to prepare for this change and support older workers. I fully accept that, depending on a person's occupation, he or she may not be able to work. However, that is where we need to make arrangements and specify between different age cohorts. The age of retirement used to be 70 years in Ireland when the type of employment was manual and much more physically demanding.

The Deputy's figures are correct regarding the jobseeker's payment of €188 per week and a pension of €230 per week. That is where some of the savings were achieved with this measure because if people who are now claiming until 66 years remain in work, they pay additional tax and PRSI contributions and, from an employer perspective, they may also help its private pension fund because they are not claiming and are also helping the sustainability of the fund. That is where the difference is and the savings were made because of the gap between the two payments.