LAST UPDATE | 23 Jul 2022

THE PENSION AGE is due to remain at 66 and people will be able to defer their pension until they are 70.

Speaking during a visit to Japan, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the changes would offer more “flexibility and options”.

The Irish Times reports that the Taoiseach said there was “broad agreement” in Cabinet for the new proposals, which will do away with a “rigid, mandatory cut-off point” for retirement.

The new scheme is due to be announced next month and will be at odds with the recommendations of the Pension Commission report published last October.

It said that the State pension age should rise by three months each year from 2028, until it hits 67 in 2031.

The Irish Times also reports that there will be some increases in PRSI payments to help cover this.

Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on employment, Deputy Louise O’Reilly, labelled the new proposals a “u-turn” and added that it doesn’t go far enough.

She called on government to “go further and give workers the right to retire at 65”.

She also called on the government to support the Employment Equality (Abolition of Mandatory Retirement Age) Bill 2022.

Sinn Féin says this Bill “seeks to abolish mandatory retirement ages and stop older workers being forced out of their jobs”.  

Micheál Martin told reporters during the Japan visit that “this idea of retiring at 66 has to go”.

But Deputy O’Reilly said these comments “appear out of touch and require clarity”.

She added: “People who have had a lifetime working on their feet, or doing hard labour on construction sites, simply cannot be expected to continue working beyond the pension age.”

The Sinn Féin TD also labelled it “a significant victory… when you consider the Taoiseach’s partners in coalition, Fine Gael, previously supported raising the pension age to 68”.

Elsewhere, Age Action welcomed the plans to allow “flexible access to the State pension” but called for “extensive stakeholder engagement” on the new proposals.

Dr Nat O’Connor, senior public affairs and policy specialist at Age Action, said the new proposals must “fully support carers or homemakers” and added that the “announcement raises more questions than answers”.

The Journal has contacted the Department of Social Protection for comment on the new proposals.

Meanwhile, the Irish Congress of Trade Union has given a “cautious welcome” and added that it is “awaiting the details of the planned reforms”.

Dr Laura Bambrick said, Head of Social Policy and Employment Affairs at ICTU, called it a “balanced and fairer approach to encouraging longer working lives than the previous policy of pushing up the pension age to 68 for everyone”.

She added: “Congress supports in principle the planned deferral scheme which will provide for a higher weekly State pension if workers delay drawing down their State contributory pension at 66 on an annual basis up to age 70.”