Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 12 February 2026
15. Deputy Eoin Hayes asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation whether his Department will consider extending the occupational supplementary pension to employees who entered employment post-2013 and are mandated to retire early due to operational demands before reaching the age of the State pension. [2752/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Single Public Service Pension Scheme is a statutory Public Service Career-Average Defined Benefit Pension Scheme. It was established under the Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Act 2012.
The provisions of the Scheme are clearly set out in law. All new-entrant public servants hired after 1 January 2013 are members of the Single Scheme. The introduction of the Scheme is instrumental in ensuring the sustainability of Public Service pensions, particularly in the context of improved life expectancy and rising public service employee numbers.
As the Single Scheme uses a career averaging model, a member's retirement benefits are based on a percentage of their pensionable earnings throughout their public service career. For each pay period, members accrue amounts towards their retirement benefits. The total accrued at retirement, with adjustments for inflation, determines their final retirement benefits. This is payable in addition to any Social Welfare pension entitlements.
Uniformed members - Firefighters, Prison Officers, Gardaí and the Defence Forces - have enhanced benefits that other Single Scheme members do not have. Uniformed staff can accrue more benefits over their expected shorter public service careers in recognition of their earlier retirement age.
When uniformed staff reach normal retirement age, they can retire and receive their retirement lump-sum and occupational pension benefit payments. While Single Scheme pension benefits are integrated with the Contributory State Pension, these benefits are separate and additional to any entitlement that they may have to the State Pension, which is paid from age 66 by the Department of Social Protection.
In 2024, Government enacted legislation to allow for an increase in the mandatory retirement age for uniformed staff to 62, if they wish to avail of it. It also allows uniformed staff to build up additional referable amounts towards their Single Scheme pension for additional years worked, increasing its final value.
A Supplementary Pension was never a feature of the Single Scheme, nor was it planned to be. No commitment has been made by Government in relation to supplementary pensions for Single Scheme fast accrual members.
