Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-22
============================================================

Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

The retirement age was 55 and it is now 62. We actually have made very significant progress on extending the age at which somebody retires in the Garda, the Army, the fire services and across the board in emergency services. The original reason was the nature of the work. Obviously, because of the investment in health services over the past two decades and better lifestyles and so on, people are living much longer, people's quality of life is much better and people are fitter at older ages than they would have historically been. That is why the age limits have increased and we will continue to keep all of that under review. However, there will always be an age of retirement in emergency response services. That is clear. Obviously, the authorities concerned specifically with this area will do their research, analysis and assessment.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-22/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-22