Full-service retirement terms
Mitchell sought retirement terms and age-by-age counts; MacSharry outlined civil-service pension and lump-sum calculations, with a brief interjection about a tabular statement.
asked the Minister for the Public Service if he will give, in as much detail as possible, the precise terms on which public servants with full service retire; and the number of such persons aged 55 and upwards, giving the numbers for each age.
Comment on this
In so far as the question relates to the civil service the position is as follows. Pension for both established and unestablished officers with full service is calculated on the basis of 1/80th, and lump sum on the basis of 3/80ths, of reckonable salary at retirement, for each year of pensionable service. In the case of unestablished officers, salary for the purposes of calculating pension is reduced by twice the personal rate of social welfare contributory old age pension. The maximum service reckonable is 40 years in all cases.
In general, in the case of established officers, pension and lump sum may be paid on retirement at age 60, or at age 65 in the case of unestablished officers. On voluntary retirement before the age at which pension and lump sum may be paid the award is deferred and brought into payment on an uprated basis at age 60 or 65 as appropriate. If premature retirement is due to ill-health, pension and lump sum are paid as from the date of retirement.
On the retirement of established and unestablished officers with full service, the wives, if widowed, are eligible for pensions of one half the amount payable to their husbands, if the latter were members of the civil service contributory widows' and children's pension scheme. A child's pension of one-third of the widow's rate up to a maximum of three children is also payable. Where the widow is dead two-thirds of her rate is payable to the first child and one-third to the second child subject to a maximum of two children. Pensions are revised by reference to pay rates operative on 1 July each year.
As regards the second part of the question the number of officers serving on 1 January 1978 age 55 and upwards with 40 years' service or more is as follows:—
