The State's largest public service union has warned the Government it will resist any attempt to make public servants work until 65 in order to qualify for a full pension.
At the moment some 200,000 professional and clerical staff in the public service can retire with a full pension after 40 years' service. In many cases this can be as early as 58 or 60.
Nurses and manual workers have to work until 65 to obtain a full pension. Gardai, prison officers, firefighters and psychiatric nurses can retire at 55.
The report of the Commission on Public Service Pensions recommended that the standard retirement age for all civil servants be 65 and be phased in over a number of years. It also proposed that an additional one per cent superannuation contribution should be sought from public servants and put in the proposed National Pensions Reserve Fund.
Yesterday, IMPACT deputy general secretary, Mr Shay Cody, said his union had no objection to the introduction of more flexible schemes that gave greater career options to public servants but the union would resist proposals to raise the retirement age to 65.