Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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3. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform when legislation to increase the compulsory retirement age for public servants will be published; the timeframe for the legislation to pass in Dáil Éireann; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13699/18]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister made an announcement last December regarding the extension of the retirement age for public servants, in respect of which there was huge interest but, unfortunately, people have been left in abeyance since. Many people are currently being forced to retire. What is the timeline for the legislation and does the Minister have any plans to deal with those people due to retire between the timeframe of the announcement and the enactment of the legislation? I have a case which I want to bring to the Minister's attention which is typical of a lot of cases in the public service.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware, on 5 December the Government agreed that the compulsory retirement age of public servants recruited before 1 April 2004 would be increased to 70. This is the only group of public servants who currently have a compulsory retirement age of less than 70. Primary legislation is required for the change approved by Government to be implemented.

The Government has approved, on my proposal, the general scheme of the Bill to give effect to its decision to increase the compulsory retirement age for most public servants recruited before 1 April 2004. I have asked the Attorney General to prioritise the drafting of this legislation so that the new compulsory retirement age will become effective as soon as possible.

The drafting process is under way and an initial draft of the Bill is being prepared. The Bill is on the list of priority legislation for publication in the spring-summer session of this year. It is not possible to determine the length of time it will take for it to be drafted and passed by the House of the Oireachtas, given the scheduling requirements and composition of the House. However, it is being treated as a priority and it is my intention to bring forward the necessary legislation as soon as possible.

The new compulsory retirement age will not come into effect until the necessary legislation is commenced. In the meantime, the Government has approved some limited interim arrangements to apply in the intervening period between the Government decision and the commencement of the necessary legislation. The interim arrangements which have to respect the current statutory position on the compulsory retirement age of 65 years, through retirement and rehire, allow affected public servants who reach the age of 65 years during that period to remain in employment until they reach the age of eligibility for the State contributory pension, which is currently 66 years. Details of the interim measures have been put in place by relevant sectors.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I wish to outline the impact of some of the interim measures. A colleague of mine has been contacted by a clerical officer who will be forced to retire this year. The person concerned will then be rehired at the age of 65 years in the manner in which the Minister has announced. He will be paid at the lowest point of the scale, plus a portion of the annual pension entitlement, strictly for one year only, to bridge the gap to the State pension. For him, this represents a cut in salary of approximately €11,000 per year. The portion of his pension that he will receive will not bring him anywhere near his current salary. He will be expected to do the same job and carry the same level of responsibility owing to the fact that we are having difficulty in passing the required legislation. Others may not be able to do so because of the delay in passing the Bill. I again ask the Minister to look at the limited arrangements in place. It is not fair that somebody facing that kind of cut will be expected to continue to do the same job because of a birthday.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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If I had not put interim measures in place, members of the public service who wanted to avail of this option would not have been in a position to do so under any circumstance. We have the interim measures in place because I felt it was necessary to have some lead-in time between announcing that we were going to do this and bringing forward a Bill to give people time to arrange their affairs and make decisions on whether they wanted to continue to work. I introduced the interim measures cognisant of the fact that people might quickly decide that they wanted to work further and I wanted to allow them to do so.

The provisions for people commencing work on the minimum point on the salary scale ensure we will stand by and implement the principle of abatement. Otherwise, we would find ourselves in a situation where people might continue to work but the aggregate figure of what they would get in maintaining their salary plus their pension would deliver a sum that was very high. This all comes from my desire to allow people to avail of this option before the legislation is passed.