Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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60. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence his views on the reference within LRA 2 to an interdepartmental working group on the alignment of the mandatory public service retirement age with the payment of the State pension contributory; if the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform informed the Defence Forces representative associations during pay talks that, due to the unique demands of the military service with respect to early mandatory retirement ages, the Minister of the sector could provide, in appropriate circumstances, arrangements to satisfy the entitlement for the State pension contributory for those who pay PRSI class A; and the way in which he will respond to this proposal. [44022/17]

Lisa Chambers (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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61. To ask the Taoiseach and Minister for Defence if he will report on discussions he has had with the representative organisations on the issue of mandatory retirement; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43997/17]

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 60 and 61 together.

I assume that the Deputy is referring to Paragraph 6.4 of the Public Service Stability Agreement 2018-2020 which indicates that a review is being undertaken by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, with public service employers, of the current statutory and operational considerations giving rise to barriers to extended participation in the public service workforce up to and including the current and planned age of entitlement to the Contributory State Pension.

My understanding is that this review does not address the position of those public servants for whom, due to operational considerations, earlier mandatory retirement ages apply.

I am informed that no commitment was given to the Staff Side by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform as part of the recent pay talks, that “the Minister of the sector could provide, where appropriate, arrangements to satisfy the entitlement for the State pension contributory for those that pay PRSI Class A”.

A claim to increase the mandatory retirement age for all officers has been received from the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers (RACO) under the Conciliation and Arbitration (C&A) Scheme for members of the Permanent Defence Force. The Deputy will appreciate that as discussions under the C&A scheme are confidential to the parties involved it would not be appropriate for me to comment further on the matter at this time.