For a long time, turning 65 in an Irish workplace came with a full stop attached. Your contract said retire, so you retired, whatever your health, your finances or your appetite for the job. Since 29 June 2026 that full stop has become a question mark, and from 29 September 2026 the first workers covered by Ireland’s new retirement age law reach the date on which they can say, in writing and with legislation behind them, that they are not finished yet.
The Employment (Contractual Retirement Ages) Act 2025 has been written about as an employment law story. It is also a health story.
TL;DR
- Since 29 June 2026, employees with a contractual retirement age of 65 or under can refuse to retire before the State Pension age of 66.
- Notify your employer in writing, citing section 5(1) of the Act, at least 3 and no more than 12 months before your retirement date. The earliest date covered is 29 September 2026.
- Employers must reply in writing within one month and can only enforce retirement if it is objectively justified. The WRC can award up to 104 weeks’ pay or €40,000, whichever is greater.
- The Act does not apply to retirement ages set by law, such as An Garda Síochána or the Defence Forces, or where your contractual age is already 66 or over.
- Irish TILDA research found involuntary retirement significantly harms mental health while voluntary retirement largely does not. The choice may matter more than what you choose.
What actually changed
Ireland has never had a single legal retirement age for employees. What it has had is a great many contracts with 65 written into them and a State Pension age of 66, leaving people to bridge a gap they did not ask for. The new Act narrows it: if your contract sets a retirement age of 65 or younger and you have completed your probation, you can object to being retired at that age and keep working until 66.
Two groups are outside it: those whose retirement age is set by statute rather than contract, as in An Garda Síochána, the Defence Forces and the fire service, and those whose contractual age is already 66 or above. Employment equality law still protects you in both cases, and the Workplace Relations Commission’s Code of Practice on Longer Working still offers a route to ask.
How the right works in practice
The mechanism is simple, but the timing is strict. You notify your employer in writing that you do not consent to retire, at least three months but no more than one year before your contractual retirement date. If your contract requires a notice period longer than three months, you give either that period or six months, whichever is shorter. Your letter should cite section 5(1) of the Act. The WRC Code of Practice, in force since 29 June 2026, includes template letters, so you are not drafting from scratch.
Your employer must consider it and reply in writing within one month. To enforce the retirement age anyway, they must explain why and show the decision is objectively and reasonably justified by a legitimate aim, and that retirement is an appropriate and necessary way of achieving it. Succession planning, health and safety in safety-critical roles and opportunities for younger workers can all count, but the employer must also consider whether a less discriminatory route exists. If they get it wrong, you have six months from the breach to complain to the WRC, extendable to twelve for reasonable cause.
Why this belongs on a health blog
Because the evidence on retirement and health is less about when than whether you chose it. Irish researchers Irene Mosca and Alan Barrett used the first two waves of The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing, a nationally representative sample of people aged 50 and over, to separate retirements by reason. Their 2016 paper in the Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics found that involuntary or forced retirement had a negative and statistically significant effect on depressive symptoms, while voluntary retirement showed smaller effects that were not consistently significant. Retiring because of ill health was also linked to poorer mental health. Encouragingly, the effects tended to fade with time.
Read that alongside the new Act and the point lands: the law has handed a large group of Irish workers the difference between a retirement that happens to them and one they decide on.
What the research does not say is that working longer is automatically good for you. A job with shift work, heavy lifting, a punishing commute or a manager who has already decided you are winding down is not a health intervention. Neither is staying on out of financial fear. Good work protects wellbeing, bad work does the opposite, and that is truer at 64 than it was at 34.
Questions worth asking before you send the letter
- Is it the work or the wage? If the honest answer is money, check your entitlements first. The decision may change.
- What would make this sustainable? Fewer days, later starts, no night shifts, a different role. Ask for adjustments alongside your notification, not instead of it.
- What does your GP think? Bring your actual working week to the appointment. Hearing, vision, joint and cardiovascular issues are all manageable at work once they are named.
- What are you retiring to? Structure, purpose and company do not appear by themselves.
- Who else depends on your time? Many people in their sixties are caring for a partner or parent. That is a legitimate reason to go.
If you would rather retire on schedule
Choosing to retire at 65 is not a failure of nerve, and the income gap to 66 is smaller than many assume. The Benefit Payment for people who retire at 65 pays a maximum personal rate of €254 a week in 2026, subject to PRSI conditions, and unlike Jobseeker’s Benefit you do not have to look for work or sign on. Apply at 65, not before, through MyWelfare. At 66 the maximum personal rate of the State Pension (Contributory) is €299.30 a week, and deferring it lifts that to €313.40 at 67 and €328.90 at 68, worth modelling if you are staying on anyway.
If you employ people in their sixties
The compliance work is straightforward: audit the retirement ages in your contracts, update handbooks for the notification process, train line managers and keep records. The cultural work matters more. An organisation that treats a notification as a problem to be justified away will lose people it cannot easily replace. One that treats it as an opening for a conversation about phased hours, mentoring or a role change usually keeps both the person and the knowledge.
Where to get help
The WRC Code of Practice on Longer Working (S.I. No. 246 of 2026) is the practical starting point and contains templates for both sides. Citizens Information explains the right in plain language on 0818 07 4000. Age Action advocates on employment and ageing, and the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission publishes guidance on retirement and fixed-term contracts. If you are in a union, talk to them first.
At Críonna Health we keep coming back to the same idea: ageing well is largely about keeping control of the decisions that shape your days. This one is finally yours to make.
General information only, not legal or medical advice. For your own contract, speak to a solicitor, your union or Citizens Information.
📷 Photo by Hasan Mrad on Unsplash
