Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 December 2025
127. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Defence her views on the issue of pension entitlements for personnel who joined the Defence Forces after 2013; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [72047/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraDefence Forces superannuation arrangements differ in a number of key respects to the wider public service. Distinct features include lower mandatory retirement ages or upper service limits, earlier ages with entitlement to immediate pension benefit, and atypical faster rates of benefit accrual. These all serve to support military manpower policy and operational requirements
The specific occupational pension scheme terms of members of the Permanent Defence Force (PDF) depend on various factors but primarily on the date a person first joins the public service. They fall mainly into the following three distinct categories:
• those who joined the PDF before April 2004;
• those who joined on or after 1st April 2004 and before 1st January 2013; and
• those who join on or after 1st January 2013 as members of the Single Public Service Pension Scheme.
The Single Public Service Pension Scheme (single scheme) is a statutory public service career-average defined benefit pension scheme, established on 1 January 2013 under the Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Act 2012. The single scheme was established to place publicly funded retirement benefits on a more sustainable footing in the context of longer life expectancies.
All new entrants to the public service, including members of the Permanent Defence Force (PDF), who are hired after 1 January 2013 are members of this single scheme.
Members of the PDF, firefighters, members of An Garda Síochána and prison officers are categorised as members of the uniformed accrual cohort of single scheme members. These uniformed grades have certain enhanced benefits that other members of the single scheme do not have, in recognition of their earlier retirement age, such as early payment of scheme benefits. This enables them to accrue more single scheme benefits over expected shorter public service careers in these roles.
Once members of the uniformed accrual cohort reach their normal retirement age as provided for in section 26 of the 2012 Act, they can retire at that age and receive their occupational retirement benefits accrued at a higher rate, including their retirement lump-sum and pension benefit payments.
These benefit payments are separate from, and in addition to, any future entitlement that they may have to the State contributory pension, which is administered by the Department of Social Protection.
While members of the Defence Forces and other uniformed accrual members have mandatory retirement ages lower than the State pension contributory retirement age, they are able to work in other employment in the intervening period while fully accessing their single-scheme pension benefits, subject to abatement, where applicable, if within the public service.
In 2024, in recognition of changing demographics and a desire for each member of the fast-accrual category to continue working for longer, the Government enacted Part 11 of the Courts, Civil Law, Criminal Law and Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) 2024. The legislation allows for an increase in the mandatory retirement age for uniformed staff to 62 years for those who choose to avail of it.
The legislative change also allows uniformed members of the single scheme to continue accruing referrable amounts towards their occupational pensions for the additional years now worked. These members will continue accruing pension benefits on a fast-accrual basis up to the age of 60.
An issue that is occasionally raised by the single scheme uniformed members is access to a supplementary pension, which exists in pre-existing public service pension schemes. However, supplementary pensions have never been a feature of the single scheme, nor is it envisaged that they will be. The wider context, which the Deputy can appreciate, is to try to have some sustainability in the overall pension system, which has been well flagged by many external and independent experts.
Military occupational pension (superannuation) schemes operate within the broader context and framework of public service pension policy, as determined by Government. The Minister for Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery, and Reform has responsibility for public service pension policy. Amendments or improvements to Defence Forces pensions schemes or pension levels, in particular any changes in relation to the Single Public Service Pension Scheme (fast accrual for the uniformed branches) can only be made by consultation with, and subject to the approval of, the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery, and Reform.
