Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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61. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform when the necessary legislative amendments to facilitate an extension of the mandatory age of retirement for uniformed services up to the age of 62 years to include full-time and retained fire service personnel will be ready; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17788/24]

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Can I find out the timeline for the necessary legislative amendments to facilitate an extension of the mandatory age of retirement? Specifically, I am asking about retained fire service personnel to the age of 62 years. I am really asking about John Molloy, who is the station officer in Dunleer. Unfortunately or fortunately, he will turn 60 on 24 May. The plan is to introduce this and I am trying to make sure Mr. Molloy is not impacted and that Dunleer fire station is not impacted, because it has a very minimal crew at this point. He also tells me that, in relation to pension changes, it would not impact on him because he started on a previous pension scheme.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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If it would not impact on him, I would hope that it would not actually make too much difference to him regardless of when we pass the legislation. In any event the news is good. We nearly have the legislation drafted and we are working away on it. It will definitely be passed this year. We are going to work hard to make sure it is passed by the summer.

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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That is good but the problem is this man turns 60 on 24 May. Is it possible to get a circular or something between the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, and the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, so we could get this sorted?

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I am not 100% sure. A moment ago he was not going to be affected by it and now he needs a circular-----

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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No, he is not going to be affected in his pension.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Okay. Right. In any event we will not be able to deal with this via a circular. We need to change the legislation in relation to it, whether it be for the Deputy's constituent or for all of the people who are affected by it. There has been widespread welcome for what we are trying to do here, which is recognising that people can work for longer. They are fitter, healthier and they are able to perform roles that many years ago we would not have thought possible. They can do it now and we will try to get this change made as soon as we can.