Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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93. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if the dependants of a person (details supplied) in County Kildare are entitled to increases agreed under the Lansdowne Road Agreement. [32025/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I understand that the deceased person referred to in the Deputy's question was a pensionable public servant, and that a dependant public service pension is payable to his surviving spouse.

The original Lansdowne Road Agreement, whose terms were agreed in 2015 following negotiations between Government and the public service trade unions, does not contain any provisions in relation to pensions.

Section 6.2 of the proposed Public Service Stability Agreement 2018-2020, which if ratified, will be an extension of the Lansdowne Road Agreement, indicates that over the duration of that agreement, policy on public service pensions in payment will be guided by the following three elements:

First, the need to adopt an equitable approach to the various public service pensioner cohorts differentiated by date of retirement (in particular pre and post end-February 2012) is affirmed.

Second, for those who retired or will retire post end-February 2012, to the extent that they retired on reduced salaries for pension award purposes, they will receive pension increases in line with pay increases received by their peers currently in employment in accordance with the terms of the collective agreement.

Third, when alignment is achieved between pre and post end-February 2012 pensioners, as will happen progressively for salary ranges up to €70,000 in 2020 under the proposed collective agreement, pay increases will continue to benefit pensions in payment for the duration of the agreement.

This means that over the period of the agreement, if ratified, public service pensions in payment will increase in line with pay increases where necessary to ensure that those pensions are equal to the pensions being awarded to same-grade retiring staff.

In the context of the Deputy's question, in a scenario where a public service pension qualifies for an increase under the proposed agreement, any related dependant pension will also be increased accordingly.