Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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657. To ask the Minister for Social Protection further to Parliamentary Question No. 183 of 9 June 2015, the status of the work being carried out as a result of the meetings of the group in question; the way in which his Department has integrated the findings of this group into policy formation; his plans to tackle the discrepancy between retirement age and pension age; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1567/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2011 provided that State pension age will be increased gradually to 68 years. This began in January 2014 with the abolition of the State pension (transition) available from 65, thereby standardising State pension age for all at 66 years, which is the current State pension age. This will increase to 67 in 2021 and to 68 in 2028.

Each year more people are living to pension age and living longer in retirement. As a result of this demographic change, the number of State pension recipients is increasing every year. This has significant implications for the future costs of State pension provision which are currently increasing almost €1 billion every 5 years. The purpose of changes to the State pension age is to make the pension system more sustainable as life expectancy increases. This sustainability is vital, if the current workers, who fund State pension payments through their PRSI, are to receive a pension themselves when they reach retirement age.

In advance of the abolition of the State pension (transition), in 2012 an Interdepartmental Working and Retirement Group convened to discuss the wide range of issues impacting on the labour market participation of older workers; enterprise issues and employment and equality law issues. This was in order to consider cross departmental policy issues that may support longer working and thereby improve the sustainability and adequacy of the pensions system.

This Group confirmed that there is no legally mandated retirement age in the State, and the age of retirement is a matter for agreement in the contract of employment between employees and their employers. While such a contract may have been entered into with a retirement date of 65, in the context of the previous State pension arrangements, there is no legal impediment to the employer and employee agreeing to increase the duration of employment for one or more years, if both parties wish to do so.

In most cases, it is hoped that workers will continue to work up to the new State pension age. To accommodate situations where this may not be possible, specific new measures were put in place within my Department which apply to someone claiming Jobseeker’s Benefit from a date after their 65th birthday. Where qualified, these recipients may continue to be eligible for that payment until reaching pension age.

Matters relating to employment and equality legislation do not fall under the remit of the Department of Social Protection. However, with reference to anydiscrepancy between retirement age and pension age resulting from retirement compelled by employers, I can confirm that in 2015 the Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act amended Irish equality legislation to set out the grounds on which employers must justify the setting of particular retirement ages, such grounds being underpinned by the provisions of the Employment Equality Directive.

More recently, in January 2016, an Interdepartmental Group on Fuller Working Lives, chaired by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, was established specifically to examine the implications arising from prevailing retirement ages. The final report of the Group made a number of recommendations to support working and retirement practices. This included a request to the Workplace Relations Commission to prepare a Code of Practice under Section 42 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1990 to help manage the engagement between employers and employees regarding retirement issues and longer working. The final report, the recommendations of which were accepted by Government in August 2016, is available on the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform’s website.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.