Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The negotiations on the single pension scheme in 2012 did not reference or include from any side this accepted agreement that was in place prior to that. In fact, at no point was it outlined by the Department that the agreement would be compromised in any way and the representative associations clearly understood that the supplementary arrangement already in place would remain a key element of the integrated model. The expectation, therefore, was that this would continue and there were no discussions of any sort with the representative associations to the effect that it would not continue. Pre-2012 officer entrants had an entitlement to the State pension when they retired but since then the new entrants do not have such an entitlement. Does the Minister of State not agree that is unfair and is yet another example of the reason the Department is failing to retain officers? We have a retention issue. This is one element of that; it is certainly contributing to it.

In short, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform did not acknowledge the flawed nature of the Defence Forces new entrants superannuation scheme. Will the Minister of State agree that the Department has potentially breached the CCR agreement No. 421? The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform states that the Minister of State, as the Minister for Defence, has the authority to recommend and provide for unique conditions of service where mandatory early retirement in advance of the payment of the State pension, contributory, is to continue. Will the Minister of State take it upon himself to address that anomaly? I accept it has been raised many times with him and similarly with me. It does not affect a huge number of people but it is vitally important that we fix the problem.

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