92. Deputy Sinéad Gibney asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform if his Department has taken any steps to address issues with the fast accrual (uniformed) single public service pension scheme for uniformed services recruited after 2013; if his Department plans to address these issues; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16472/25]

Sentiment score: 0.01

The changes to the public service pension scheme in 2013 essentially created, first, an anomaly and, now, something that has crystalised into policy in respect of fast accrual. Has the Department taken any steps to address issues with the fast accrual single public service pension scheme for members of uniformed services recruited after 2013, specifically the lack of a supplementary pension until they reach State pension age? Has the Department any plans to address these issues?

Sentiment score: 0.11

I will jump on one phrase the Minister used. I know it has been essentially a policy that Government spokespeople have used. It is that people are "able" to work after the age of 55. I raised this question on the back of a meeting I had with Dublin firefighters and their union representatives last week. They spoke to me about the specific dangers that their vocation introduced into their lives. They simply have lower life expectancies and poorer quality of life after retirement and higher incidences of cancer and addiction. Recent research from the World Health Organization, WHO, backs this up further. It is not good enough that we are simply saying to firefighters and people in those uniformed services that they can just work after that age. The stopgap of bringing it forward to the age of 62 is welcome but it is not enough and the Minister knows this because, as an Opposition TD, he tabled a motion in 2019 related to the Defence Forces that highlighted this issue. Will the Minister please tell me what he is actually going to do to help those firefighters who are retiring at the age of 55?

Sentiment score: -0.07

I appreciate the liability of the State in terms of pension services but the fact that the supplementary pension has not been a feature since 2013 shows that these uniformed services are a casualty of that policy. Besides the moral obligation we have to these workers who have provided crucial services to our society in the course of their careers, I would also speak to the retention issues that this drives. In a recent survey of more than 2,000 members of the services recruited after 2013, fewer than 1% were not concerned about their pensions and three quarters of them did not believe that they could serve until the mandatory retirement age, partly due to the pension issue. This means that, rather than waiting until age 55 - according to Government policy, they should then seek other work - they are asking themselves at the age of 40 whether they should seek other work. This is leading to the issues we are seeing with recruitment and retention in these crucial services that our communities rely on.

Sentiment score: -0.11