Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I met President Macron last week in Brussels. We did not have a bilateral meeting but we were attending the European Council and we spoke en marge of that. We discussed the pension reforms. I understand in France they are trying to bring the pension age to 64. It is 66 here, and perhaps heading for 66 in Northern Ireland, with a 43-year rule. I explained to him that we have adopted a different approach in Ireland whereby people are able to choose to retire between the ages of 66 and 70 and that the amount of pension they receive will depend on their contributions based on 40 years over a possible 56 years, and also taking into account periods of caring. We had a good discussion on that.

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