Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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275. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the provisions for workers that have left or were in their final year of service in the public sector when the Public Service Superannuation (Age of Retirement) Act 2018 was passed to continue working in their positions; if workers aged 66 years of age and that were still working in their positions when this legislation was enacted can continue working in line with the new age limits in the Act; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24716/20]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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The Public Service Superannuation (Age of Retirement) Act 2018 (“the Act”) was enacted on 26 December 2018. The Act introduced a new compulsory retirement age of 70 for the cohort of standard grade public servants recruited prior to 1 April 2004 (termed “relevant public servants” under the Act). Prior to 26 December 2018, these public servants had a compulsory retirement age of 65.

Under the Act, any relevant public servant who had not already reached their compulsory retirement age of 65 before 26 December 2018 has a new compulsory retirement age of 70. Enactment of the legislation had no effect on those public servants who had already retired at 65 prior to the enactment of the legislation on 26 December 2018. This includes individuals who had availed of the temporary interim arrangements which were made available to public servants who reached their compulsory retirement age of 65 between 5 December 2017 and 25 December 2018. Under the arrangements, these individuals retired, as required, but were re-hired on a 1 year contract until they reached the age of 66. Anyone in this position would have been required to cease working in the public service no later than 25 December 2019 on the expiration of that 1 year contract.

As provided for in Section 3 of the Act, my colleague Paschal Donohoe, TD, former Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform prepared a report on the cohort of public servants who were required to retire at the age of 65 after the date of the Government Decision to introduce the new compulsory retirement age, but before the commencement of the Act. This Report was laid before the Oireachtas on 26 March 2019 as required, and is publicly available on the www.gov.ie website and in the Oireachtas Library online catalogue. The conclusion of the report was that the interim arrangements were an appropriate temporary policy response pending enactment of the legislation. The terms of those arrangements were clear, unambiguous and made known to those who availed of them. Accordingly, for the reasons set out in the report, no changes were made to those arrangements and the individuals involved were required to cease working on the expiration of their 1 year contract in accordance with the terms of the temporary interim arrangements.