Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

I will address both issues. The fundamental principle underscoring this Bill is a shift from the calculation of final pension. Instead of the final salary dictating the pension, it will be based on a career average. We may have seen where people were appointed to a very senior position in the last year of their public service life and their pension is evermore determined by that last number of months in some instances. That will end with this process. That is important.

The Senator's second point relates to people who leave work on a decent pension with a lump sum and are rehired. Again I am making changes in this legislation to deal with that, but a system that is called abatement is already in place. If one is rehired, the new salary plus the pension aggregated cannot be more than the final salary.