THE COMPULSORY RETIREMENT age will increase from the age of 65 to 70 for the majority of public servants who were recruited before April 2004 under a new Bill from the Minister for Finance.

Paschal Donohoe published the Public Service Superannuation (Age of Retirement) Bill 2018 today after securing the Government’s approval.

The Minister said that the new Bill reflects the fact that people are living longer and feel they have more to contribute in later life.

“Once this Bill has been enacted, no public servant, other than a member of the uniformed pension fast accrual group, such as, for example, gardai or prison officers who, for operational reasons are required to retire early, will be required to retire before the age of 70″.

In 2015 life expectancy at age 65 in Ireland was 21 years for women and 18.4 years for men according toa study by the European Health and Life Expectancy Information System.

Department of Finance Department of Finance

Currently, the mandatory retirement age is set at 65 with the eligibility of a state pension starting at the age of 66.

The state pension age is scheduled to increase to 67 in 2021 and 68 in 2028.

The new compulsory retirement age of 70 will bring the pre-2004 cohort of public servants into line with members of the Single Public Service Pension Scheme.

The scheme was introduced for most new recruits to the public service since 1 January 2013 and which also allows those public servants to work until they reach the age of 70.

So public servants recruited after 1 April 2004 are not affected by the changes proposed in the Bill.