Séamus Healy (Tipperary, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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252. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will recommend to Government that the €780 in pension restoration due on 1 January 2018 to public service pensioners be brought forward to 1 January 2017 and paid together with the €500 due on that date (details supplied); if he will bring forward the date for full restoration of all public service pensions to 1 January 2018 in view of the fact that Teachtaí Dála will have become entitled to further pay restoration of in excess of €5,400 by that date and that 60% of public service pensioners currently living will have died by 2021; if he will base the pension award to survivors of deceased public servants on the pension of the deceased as if it had been fully restored before the date of death; if he will ensure that this measure will come into effect from 8 November 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33555/16]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The pension restoration amounts of €500 and €780 on 1 January 2017 and 1 January 2018 respectively are the maximum gains on those dates attainable by persons whose public service pensions have been affected by the Public Service Pension Reduction (PSPR) under the financial emergency legislation.

These pension restoration adjustments are provided for in law under the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (FEMPI) Act 2015.  When fully rolled-out from 1 January 2018, the changes involved will mean that all public service pensions with pre-PSPR values of up to €34,132 will be fully exempt from PSPR, while those pensioners not fully removed from the reach of PSPR will, in the majority of cases, benefit by €1,680 per year. The cost of these changes is estimated at about €90 million on a full-year basis from 2018. This substantial PSPR amelioration, delivered via a three-stage restoration schedule under FEMPI 2015, provides PSPR-affected pensioners with a significant measure of reversal of the originally imposed reductions. 

Pensions paid to survivors of deceased public servants are based on the pre-PSPR value of the corresponding member pension, with any PSPR then applied.  Survivor's are in most cases equal to half the corresponding member pension.  Where a higher ratio than half applies, as is the case for most 1995-2012-hired members of the mainstream civil and public service pension schemes, the cash value of the corresponding member pension tends to be low because of shorter service and the Contributory State Pension offset used in the integrated occupational pension calculation. 

In terms of the survivor's pension itself, PSPR does not apply in all cases of pre-PSPR value up to €18,700 at present, €26,000 from 1 January 2017 and €34,132 from 1 January 2018.  These thresholds are considerably higher in cases where the member pension award date is after 29 February 2012.