Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

The Minister's reply on the matter of the marriage bar raises an interesting, if largely theoretical, question. A person who comes back into the public service through a special scheme and resumes employment after 30 years will, unlike his or her contemporaries, have the right to go on serving past the age of 65. We might have a small early crop, not in 40 years but in five or ten years, of people able to continue working beyond the age of 65 simply because they have come back into the Civil Service as new entrants. There is nothing wrong with that because if they have been out for 30 years, many of them will wish to catch up on lost time and there is nothing inequitable about them being able to serve a little longer. People who come back into the workforce in that fashion are in no hurry to retire from active employment again.

Another aspect of this intrigues me. There is a special category of public service employee, not always highly regarded, called special advisers. There is a large number of them and they are reasonably well institutionalised at this stage. The Governments they serve go into Opposition from time to time and an adviser can have a contract of employment which is, for all practical purposes, identical after a period of, for example, two and a half years, such as between 1994 and 1997. My clear impression is that the pension contributions in the periods when one is a special adviser are accumulated to calculate the pension. Obviously, the Civil Service equivalent rank one ends up with is relevant, as well as the number of years one serves. The different periods are accumulated even though there might be a discontinuity of service. If an adviser has been serving for five or ten years and this is followed by a gap of two years, I do not know if he or she is a new entrant on their return. It is a point for consideration.