Deadline to avail of public pensions at pre-emergency cuts level extended

The Government has extended, by a year, the deadline before which public servants must retire if they want to receive a pension based on the terms and conditions they had prior to the introduction of emergency financial legislation.

The deadline had been set at August 2014. It was then extended to June 2015. Yesterday, Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin moved it back to June 2016.

His department said that if no extension was granted “it could prompt the retirement this summer of substantial numbers of staff at senior levels, including office holders, medical and other specialists, as well as those at managerial ranks”.