Update: Effects of Retirement on Public Sector Staffing Levels 10th July 2014

QUESTION NO:  205
DÁIL QUESTION addressed to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (Deputy Brendan Howlin)
by Deputy Bernard J. Durkan
for WRITTEN ANSWER on 09/07/2014 

 To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the extent to which normal retirement, early retirement or other factors are likely to feature in the context of staffing levels throughout the public sector in the course of the current year and the remaining years up to 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
 
REPLY.

The number of public service pensioners is set out annually in the Revised Estimates Volume  for Public Services (REV).  The 2014 REV estimates that there will be just under 150,000 public service pensioners by end year, which is just under an additional 5,000 new pensioners compared with 2013, on a net basis.  This figure for pensioners includes retired public servants and also the widows/widowers of public servants. 

Typically, people can retire on age grounds at age 60.  There is currently no provision for incentivised early retirement in the public service.  The estimate for the number of pensioners in 2015 will be prepared for and published in the Revised Estimates in December.

As regards the impact on overall staffing levels, dealing with retirements is a normal part of human resource management across the public service.