Written answers
Tuesday, 20 June 2017
Department of Public Expenditure and Reform
Pension Levy
Tony McLoughlin (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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384. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if the timescales involved for the unwinding of the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2013 for retired public servants under the public service pension reduction will be given the same parity and fairness in any future pay deal as allowed to current working public servants in view of the scale of the difference in the reductions applied between the retired and working public servants in the past; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27740/17]
Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Public Service Pension Reduction (PSPR) reduces the value of those public service pensions which have pre-PSPR values above specified thresholds. It does so in a progressively structured way which has a proportionately greater effect on higher value pensions.
A very significant part-unwinding of PSPR in three stages is taking place under the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2015, with PSPR-affected pensioners getting pension increases via substantial restoration of the PSPR cuts on 1 January 2016, 1 January 2017 and 1 January 2018.
This three-stage part-unwinding of PSPR is delivering significant pensions increases to PSPR-affected pensioners. On 1 January 2016 all pensions of up to at least €18,700 became exempt from PSPR; from 1 January 2017, all pensions of up to at least €26,000 are now exempt from PSPR, and from 1 January 2018 all pensions of up to at least €34,132 per year will be exempt from PSPR. Those pensioners not fully removed from the reach of PSPR by dint of these changes will, in the majority of cases, benefit by €1,680 per year from 2018. The cost of these changes is estimated at about €90 million on a full-year basis from 2018.
Under section 12 of the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (FEMPI) Act 2013, I as Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform am required to review the necessity of the FEMPI legislation annually and cause a written report of my findings to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas. The next report is due by end June 2017 and in the context of that report, I shall review the scope of the existing financial emergency measures and the possible further scale-back of those measures, including the PSPR.
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