Clause 10 (Pension age)

Part of Executive Committee Business – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 7:00 pm on 27 January 2014.

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Photo of Daithí McKay Daithí McKay Sinn Féin 7:00, 27 January 2014

Where the legislation that is before us is concerned, Westminster could decide that the state pension age is 80.  We would not be able to do anything about that.  That does not make sense to me.  We might take the position that what Westminster is proposing on state pension age may be agreeable, but the whole purpose of devolution is that there should be local accountability for those matters.  We may receive more evidence in the Williams report to show that firefighters should not be on the front line at the age of 60 because people's lives would be put at risk.  Given that there are cases like that, I think that we should give due consideration to the issues in a more detailed way.  The purpose of the Assembly, the Departments and especially the Committees is to ensure that we make the right decisions.  If we make the wrong decision on this legislation, there is an opportunity to tinker with the regulations to ensure that any difficulties can be easily ironed out further down the line. 

Amendment No 4, which the Green Party tabled, extends the police pension age of 60 to prison officers, paramedics and ambulance care attendants.  I suppose that that reflects some of the concerns that were voiced at Committee Stage.  In Committee, we heard at length about the firefighters' case, as I outlined.  We heard about the Williams review and evidence that firefighters would be unable to maintain the required fitness levels at 55 to 60 years of age.  As I have already said, there are other roles that we did not look at in detail.  To be fair, the Fire Brigades' Union came before the Committee by itself.  It gave detailed evidence and responded to questions.  We had an opportunity to follow up on many of the issues with the Health Minister and his Department.  We did not receive conclusive answers.  I think that the Assembly made the right decision to make an exception for firefighters at Consideration Stage.

If it is the case for firefighters, it certainly might and could be the case for people in other public service roles.  The Finance Committee noted from its research and evidence that, apart from firefighters and police officers, certain other physically or emotionally demanding public service roles, such as that of prison officers, or of teachers, as the Member who spoke previously mentioned —