Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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32. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if studies have taken place to determine the number of persons displaced by the retirement age, impacting on those 65 to 70 years of age; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [53250/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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As this is a voluntary measure for existing public servants with a compulsory retirement age of 65, giving them the option to work until 70, it provides an ongoing opportunity to public servants to exercise their retirement option anytime from age 65 to age 70. This will be influenced by the personal circumstances of each individual, which may be subject to ongoing consideration as those personal circumstances change during their retirement horizon. Accordingly, it is difficult to estimate the impact of this measure in the future. However, high level analysis carried out by my Department indicates that in the region of 1,300 public servants recruited before 1 April 2004 reach the age of 65 in a given year and would potentially benefit from the measure. Also, based on existing retirement behaviour of public servants, it would be expected that as these employees will be in a position to retire on pension from age 65, there will be a continuing trend towards retirement over subsequent years. On this basis, it is expected that numbers within the cohort will steadily reduce over time between the ages of 65 and 70.