Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Section 8 provides the Minister for Justice with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform with the power to make regulations relating to the retirement of prison officers, including specifying a retirement age greater than the current age, which is 60. Existing minimum retirement ages contained in primary legislation are not affected. We discussed that. I want to make that clear on the floor of the House.

Likewise, fast accrual terms cannot be amended under this regulation. While pay scales are referenced in the amendment, Part 7 does not concern pay. Again I want to make that clear for any Member listening. Similarly, section 10 provides the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, with the consent again of the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, with the power to make regulations relating to the retirement of firefighters, including specifying the retirement age greater than their current mandatory retirement age. Minimum retirement ages again are not affected by the regulation-making power nor fast accrual terms. What may be prescribed in both cases is the new upper age of retirement greater than 60 and what they have at the moment.

Representative bodies, and this is where we are getting at it more broadly, will still have the opportunity and will still continue to negotiate on their agreed terms and conditions or any terms of conditions of employment for their members with public service employers and the respective Ministers under the existing forms that currently exist. To be really clear, there is nothing here that I am proposing that in any way changes a person's terms and conditions. It does not impact on their ability to retire at the age at which they wish to. If it is before the age of 60 or 62, it does not in any way impact the fast accrual pension, which only applies in these certain circumstances. For any of those to be changed, that would absolutely require not just changes in the Dáil here with approval b votes but significant engagement with the relevant organisations.

I go back to the fact that there are people who want to continue to work. One of them raised it with me today. That person who is due to retire on 21 August and without this legislation passing, they would be forced to retire on that date instead of potentially being able to work for another year or two if they wish. That is the objective we all agree on here. I reassure Deputies that this will not in any way impact on an individual's terms and conditions. They can only be changed with engagement with the associations through the public service employer and the respective Ministers. I mentioned a number of Ministers in that regard.

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