Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will consider extending the closing date of 1 January 2014 for the Statetransition pension in view of the relatively short notice that was given on the closure of this scheme.; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42146/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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There are two main contributory State pension schemes – the State pension (transition) and the State pension (contributory). The State pension (transition) is paid to people aged 65 who have retired from work and who have the required number and class of social insurance contributions. State pension contributory (SPC) is paid at age 66 to those who meet the qualifying conditions.

The Social Welfare and Pensions Act, 2011 provides that State pension age will be increased gradually to 68 years. This will begin in 2014 with the abolition of the State pension (transition) thereby increasing State pension age for all to 66 years. The State pension age will be further increased to 67 years in 2021 and to 68 years in 2028.

The standardisation of State pension age at 66 and the abolition of State pension (transition) removes the retirement condition associated with State pension (transition) which acts as an incentive to leave the workforce and has been widely criticised as a barrier to older people remaining in employment. There is no retirement condition attached to the State pension (contributory) which is currently payable from age 66.

There are no plans to change the date of implementation.

At present, my Department is working with the relevant agencies of State who have a role to play in identifying and breaking down barriers to remaining in work past the age of 65.

The continued participation of older people in the labour market must be encouraged and facilitated to meet the challenge of an ageing society. Employees and employers need to be persuaded to change their attitudes to working longer. In the workplace, employers should try to retain older employees and create working conditions which make working longer both attractive and possible for the older worker.

Opportunities for older people to participate in education, employment and other aspects of economic and social life must be maximised.

Raising State pension age and the abolition of the State pension (transition) is a necessary step in ensuring the sustainability of pensions into the future. There is an important and significant policy background to these changes which is that with increases in life expectancy, more people are living to pension age and living longer in retirement. This has obvious and significant implications in relation to the future costs of State pension provision. The fundamental principle involved here is that people need to participate in the workforce for longer and they need to contribute more towards their pensions if they are to achieve the income they expect or would like to have in retirement.

An information campaign in relation to all of the changes has been underway since March 2012 and all information can be accessed at www.welfare.ie. My Department also met with the relevant representative groups and information leaflets were disseminated to all relevant groups as part of the information campaign.