Ireland: Legal Challenges and Legislative Change in Ireland’s Retirement Age Framework

A new Employment (Contractual Retirement Ages) Bill 2025 is progressing through the stages of Government towards being signed into law.  At present, the State Pension Age in Ireland is 66. Once enacted, the Bill will permit employees who are subject to contractual retirement ages below the State Pension Age of 66 to notify their employer that they do not consent to retirement at the contractual retirement age.

Following on from our April update, the Employment (Contractual Retirement Ages) Bill 2025 (the “Bill”) has now progressed to the Committee Stage in the Dáil.  This forms part of the process in which legislation progresses to be passed into law in Ireland.  The Bill is part of the Irish government’s commitment to the implementation of pension reforms for a sustainable pensions system in Ireland.  At present there is no set retirement age albeit a statutory pension is available.

Once enacted, the Bill will permit employees who are subject to contractual retirement ages below the State Pension Age of 66 to notify their employer that they do not consent to retirement at the contractual retirement age.  This has the potential to cause issues for employers, as they may be limited in enforcing mandatory retirement on employees unless the reason for the retirement age can be objectively justified.

The 2024 Supreme Court decision in the case of Mallon v Minister for Justice [2024] IESC 20 confirmed the position that an employer is not required to justify a general retirement age to an individual employee/role or carry out an individual assessment where the employer’s aims in having a general retirement age are legitimate and proportionate.

In Ireland currently the Code of Practice on Longer Working SI No. 600 2017 (“Code of Practice”) is in place.  This was developed to assist employers in managing employee requests to work longer and continue in employment beyond the State Pension Age.  Enforcing mandatory retirement is a very contentious issue in Ireland and one which has given rise to much litigation in recent years, so it is an area that requires careful consideration.

Currently, employers should continue to consider the Code of Practice and have due consideration when dealing with employee requests to work longer.  This is an area of law which will continue to evolve in the coming months.