Declare start date for pension scheme, says FF

The Government must declare when the lower-paying public service pension scheme will begin operating and ensure it is applied to all new entrants from the same date, Fianna Fáil has said.

The Irish Examiner reported this week that thousands of people have joined the public service since the end of July when the law to set up the new scheme was passed. But they have continued to join the existing pension scheme because it has not yet been started by Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Brendan Howlin.

He must sign a commencement order setting the operative date for the new scheme, which could now be the end of the year, before any new public servants are affected. From that date, anyone who does pensionable work in the public service for the first time — or after a break of at least six months — will have their pension calculated on career-average earnings instead of final salary, as applies to existing public servants.