Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

One does not get a pension and a Deputy's salary at the same time. That was abolished.

The pensions of Oireachtas Members, including Ministers and other officeholders, have been subject to a range of measures in the past few years that have substantially reduced the benefits awarded by previous Governments to political officeholders and that have had significant downward effects on the pension entitlements of current officeholders.

The Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Act 2012 introduced a new single public service pension scheme for all new entrants, including new Oireachtas Members, from 2013. The scheme applies a new minimum pension age of 66 years, raised from 65 years, to new entrant public servants and is linked to increases in the age for the contributory State pension. Benefits under the new scheme are substantially revised, with pensions for all new entrant public servants, including Ministers and Oireachtas Members, to be based on career average earnings rather than the current final salary basis.

Successive Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Acts have had an impact on the pay and pensions of officeholders. For example, the pay reductions have reduced the salaries on which pensions are calculated substantially. A progressive public service pension reduction, PSPR, was introduced from January 2011 on the pensions of those who retired before March 2012. From January 2012, a new higher PSPR rate of 20% was introduced for pensions of more than €100,000. Further PSPRs were introduced subsequently for pensions of €32,500 and above from July 2013. These will have an impact on all those retiring before the end of the current grace period. These measures were deemed necessary and appropriate to ensure that higher-paid pensioners, including officeholders, made a fair and proportionate additional contribution to fiscal consolidation.

Other measures introduced in recent years which have had an impact on pensions include the exclusion for pension purposes of long service increments, the bar on serving Oireachtas or European Parliament Members from receiving ministerial pensions and the application of aggregation of public service pensions in the calculation of a pension where the aggregated value of such pensions are in excess of €32,500 per annum.

We have reduced pay for current officeholders, including the Taoiseach, whose pay has been reduced by 41%, which has a knock-on effect on his pensions. With regard to previous officeholders, to whom the Deputy referred, I have gone as far as the legal advice available to me allows. The Deputy was not present when I debated this matter previously with Deputy Healy. A constitutional issue of preserved property rights arises and I am conscious of the need to avoid introducing any measure that would cause a collapse of the entire financial emergency measures in the public interest legislation, as to do so would be ruinous for the State.

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