Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 147: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if a person (details supplied) in County Mayo must retire at 65. [5378/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Retirement by age 65 is a standard feature of public service pension schemes and usually, as in the case of established civil servants, involves retirement on the public servants 65th birthday. Special provisions applicable to teachers allow service to continue until the end of the school year in which age 65 is attained.

The standard retirement age of 65 was recently addressed in the Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2004. The Act, which is in effect since 1 April 2004, abolishes the compulsory retirement age of 65 in the case of most new entrants to the public service, including teachers. The Act defines a new entrant as a person commencing employment in the public service on or after 1 April 2004 or a person resuming employment in the public service, after a break exceeding 26 weeks, on or after 1 April 2004. Since the person referred to by the Deputy is not a new entrant to teaching, I confirm that she will be required to retire at the end of the current school year as she will by then have reached age 65.