Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. I will provide two examples of where I was contacted about people who had to retire on grounds of age. They were both post-1995 recruits but were treated differently. One prison officer from Dublin attended his welfare office and asked for a letter stating that he was not looking or available for work. He received that letter and forwarded it to the National Shared Services Office, NSSO, and his pension was paid in full without it being necessary to sign on and meet the jobseeker’s allowance criteria. A second prison officer in a different county had to sign on and do a course prescribed by social welfare officers, and he could not go on holidays for more than two weeks without losing his payment.

It would make sense for the pension to be administered by the NSSO from day 1. There would be no extra cost for the Government and would save the Department of Social Welfare time and effort, which would be important.

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