Public Service (Amendment) Regulations, 2024 (No. 3)

The Public Service Commission has rewritten the retirement rules for the civil service, with effect from 1 January 2025.

Sections 17 and 18 of the Public Service Regulations, 1992 (published in S.I. 1 of 2000) are repealed and replaced. A member appointed on pensionable terms **before** the effective date may have a pensionable age of 65 with an option to retire at 70 on full pension — but any retirement between the 65th and the 70th birthday is treated as early retirement. A member appointed **on or after** the effective date has a pensionable age of 70 outright.

Each member's pensionable age must be recorded on their record of employment for pension purposes, and the Paymaster must give every head of Ministry or department, on 1 June each year, a list of members turning 60, 65 or 70 in the coming year. That annual list is the practical mechanism ministries will use to plan exits.

On early retirement, a member may retire any time after turning 60 on three months' notice, if the Commission permits. The Commission may also require a member to retire on or after their 60th birthday, giving the notice period that applies to resignation under section 15(2). There is a protection: a member who was on pensionable conditions immediately before the effective date and has served continuously since cannot be forced out under that power before turning 70.

The practical effect is a longer working life at the top of the service and a much harder path to pushing out long-serving staff in their sixties. Note one obvious typographical slip in the published text — "seventyyears" and "the year of sixty-fifth anniversary" — which does not change the meaning.