Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Public servants will now be able to work until the age of 70. The question is whether they will be compelled to do so or whether they will they do it out of a desire to work. The Minister says that the decision for those public servant workers is completely voluntary. I put it to him that he has put in conditions which mean it is not completely voluntary. I will list three: the increased take in the form of the now consolidated public service pension levy; the replacement of half final salary with half career average earnings; and the breaking of the automatic link between salary and pensions post-retirement and its replacement with periodic non-automatic links with the consumer price index. Any reasonable analysis would show there is an economic push factor that will force many public servants to work until 70, long after they would wish to be the case.

See this speech in context