THE PENSION AGE should not go beyond 66, Taoiseach Micheál Martin told his parliamentary party meeting today.
He said additional PRSI contributions will be needed to ensure the pension age is not increased.
“People should also be allowed to work on if they wish and continue to pay PRSI so they can qualify for a full pension. Flexibility will be key,” he said.
Martin said a “fair and sustainable approach” will be required to give people certainty.
His comments seem to temper expectations that a rise in the pension age could be on the cards.
Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys said last month that she will be bringing the much-delayed proposals on the pension age to Government before the summer recess. However, the Taoiseach’s comments today indicate this will now not be the case.
The recommendation has been delayed going to Government, with the minister previously stating that she would bring proposals in April.
The Pension Commission report published last October said that the State pension age should rise by three months each year from 2028 until it hits 67 in 2031.
The report also recommended that it should then gradually increase to 68 by 2039.
However, the Oireachtas Social Protection Committee recommended that the State pension should be retained at its current age of 66 and that changes to employers’ PRSI contribution rates should be examined by the Commission on Welfare and Taxation to determine the fairest way to increase the rates.
Taoiseach says there was a good discussion on pensions at the parliamentary party meeting on the budget.
— Christina Finn (@christinafinn8) July 1, 2022
‘I made the point that we didn't see the age going beyond 66,’ says Micheál Martin. pic.twitter.com/iwT4d5OqZn
Speaking to reporters after the Fianna Fáil party meeting in Dublin, the Taoiseach said retaining the pension age at 66 would have implications on PRSI increases “in the medium term”.
“But above all, we have to work with coalition parties on finalising that more,” he added.
The Government will consider both the commission’s and the committee’s recommendations “in the round”, said Martin.
“These are weighty issues,” he added, indicating that the recommendation will now not go to Cabinet before the summer recess, as was previously indicated by Minister Humphreys.
“We don’t have a specific timeline just yet,” he said, adding that the Tax and Welfare Commission is in November.
“We have to throw that into the overall assessment,” he said.
Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath said the coalition parties have yet to reach a collective position on the matter.
He said the Pension Commission “was very clear that doing nothing is not an option, because there are real sustainability issues with the pension system and we all know the demographic trends in Ireland”.
“The ratio is changing very significantly of the number of people that work relative to the number of people who will be on the pension. But it did lay out four broad options,” he said, outlining that one relates to changes over time with PRSI rates that would allow the retention of the existing pension age.
There would also be flexibility for people who reach the age of 66 and have a small number of stamps, that they would be able to work that little bit longer and continue to pay a stamp, which would be recognised, and would result in them being compensated to the full pension a little bit later.
“So there are those flexibilities as well. But the bottom line is we have to adopt an approach that is sustainable, but we are recognising that there are options in that regard.
“One of those options is and it was clearly the preferred approach advocated by our own parliamentary party today, that the pension age would remain unchanged.
The pension age became a major, and rather unexpected, political issue in the last general election after Fianna Fáil promised to postpone the rise to 67. Fine Gael insisted on it going ahead, while Sinn Féin pledged to restore the pension age to 65.
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