Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am not sitting on any legislation on this issue. The policy on the minimum retirement age across the entire economy is a matter for either the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Humphreys, or the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Regina Doherty. We are not seeking to incentivise people to make a choice. We are simply recognising the choice that employees want to make. In many cases, the rationale for why people want to continue working after reaching retirement age is not always a financial matter. As people approach retirement age, they are still able to contribute so much, whether to the classroom, the hospital or the workplace. They want to continue working. That is a win-win for the country, because these people have the expertise and experience built up that allows that work to be done well. We are now in a position where we can recruit new and younger workers to our public service. The reason people are coming back in at the minimum point on the salary scale is that these workers have already retired and we must bear in mind the principles of abatement which have been in operation in our Civil Service workplaces for quite a while. I hope to be able to deal with the matter in its entirety when I bring forward the legislation to deal with it. When it passes it will mean that the workers the Deputy referred to will not have retired in the first place.

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