Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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416. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his views in relation to Retired Public Service Pensioners who will continue to pay the public service pension reductions in view of the fact that many retirees have been removed from this situation; his plans to address this issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31115/15]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I am happy to have delivered on my commitment to move towards lessening the impact of the Public Service Pension Reduction (PSPR) at the earliest date the economic and fiscal recovery enabled this Government to do so, with the majority of the planned benefit focussed on benefitting those PSPR-affected public service pensioners who are in receipt of relatively lower public service pensions.

My proposals in this regard, which have been accepted by Government, were announced on 16 June 2015. Those proposals provide for the part-restoration of the PSPR pensions cuts in three stages effective from 1 January 2016, 1 January 2017 and 1 January 2018.  From 1 January 2018, all public service pensions in payment with pre-PSPR values of €34,132 or less will be fully exempt from PSPR, while those pensioners not fully removed from the PSPR "net" will, in general, benefit by €1,680 per year.

The PSPR was introduced in 2011 through Financial Emergency in the Public Interest (FEMPI) Acts, and its constitutional legitimacy is based on the presence of an overriding public interest, in this case the fiscal crisis, and because it is general in application, fair and proportionate. I am legislatively required to review all aspects of the FEMPI measures annually and the announced changes in the application of PSPR up to January 2018 reflect the outcome of my most recent review in June 2015.  The cost of the announced changes is estimated at €90m over the three years out to 2018 which can be accommodated within our ongoing budgetary constraints.  Following the implementation of the changes only some 25,000 higher level pensions will remain subject to PSPR out of an originally hit total of about 90,000 pensions.  I have no plans at this time to make any additional changes to the application of the PSPR.