Forced to Retire at 65: New Rights From June 2026

Being forced to retire at 65 in Ireland became a matter of statutory procedure on 29 June 2026, when the Employment (Contractual Retirement Ages) Act 2025 commenced. The Act gives an employee whose contract fixes a retirement age below the State pension age of 66 the right to notify the employer, between 3 and 12 months before the contractual retirement age, that they do not consent to retire before 66. The employer must reply in writing with reasons within one month. A refusal can go to the WRC within 6 months, with compensation of up to 104 weeks’ remuneration or €40,000, whichever is greater. This guide sets out each step, the Code of Practice on Longer Working 2026 that sits alongside the Act, the Employment Equality Acts age ground that runs in parallel, and what to do if your retirement date is already inside the window.

1. Forced to Retire at 65: What Changed on 29 June 2026

The problem the Act addresses is a gap of a year. Many contracts of employment, handbooks and pension schemes fix a retirement age of 65, while the State pension is not paid until 66. An employee retired at 65 against their will could be left for twelve months with neither a salary nor the State pension. The Act does four things about that:

• A right to notify. The employee may notify the employer, between 3 and 12 months before the contractual retirement age, that they do not consent to retire before the State pension age of 66;
• A duty to reply. The employer must reply in writing, with reasons, within one month;
• A WRC remedy. A complaint to the WRC lies within 6 months;
• A compensation ceiling. Up to 104 weeks’ remuneration or €40,000, whichever is greater.

Alongside the Act, the Code of Practice on Longer Working 2026 replaces the 2017 code. None of this abolishes contractual retirement ages. It gives the employee a procedure for contesting one and gives the employer a duty to explain itself in writing, and every later dispute will be decided on that explanation.

2. The Notification Window: 3 to 12 Months Before Your Retirement Date

Everything starts with a date. The contractual retirement age is the one fixed by your own contract of employment, and finding it means reading the contract, the staff handbook and any pension scheme rules incorporated into it, because the documents do not always agree with each other. Once the date on which you reach that age is known, the window is a matter of counting back: the notification may be made no earlier than 12 months before the date and no later than 3 months before it. On the face of the Act the window is a condition of the right, so an employee who notifies too early, or who leaves it until the final weeks, risks losing the procedure altogether. The notification itself should be short, in writing and unambiguous: that you do not consent to retire before the State pension age of 66, the date of your contractual retirement age, and the date of the letter. Keep a copy and keep proof of delivery, because the employer’s one month runs from it and the 6 months for any WRC complaint will be measured against the same calendar.

3. The Employer’s Reply: Written Reasons Within One Month

The employer must reply in writing, with reasons, within one month of the notification. That reply is the central document in any dispute that follows, for three reasons. It fixes the employer to its position before a solicitor or the WRC is involved. It is the employer’s own statement of why this employee, in this role, must leave at this age, and it will be read against the Code of Practice on Longer Working 2026 rather than the 2017 code it replaced. And its absence is itself a failure to comply: an employer that lets the month pass without answering has not done what the Act requires. The employee’s task during the month is to say nothing that could be read as agreement. Do not sign a retirement acknowledgement, a pension drawdown form or an exit document, and do not accept a leaving date in correspondence, because the employer will later argue that retirement was consented to. If the reply agrees to continued working on changed terms, those terms are a variation of the contract and should be taken with advice, not assumed.

4. The WRC Complaint Within 6 Months

A complaint under the Act lies to the WRC within 6 months. Because the Act is new and no decision under it has yet been reported, the prudent course is to count the 6 months from the earliest date that could start the clock, which will usually be the employer’s written refusal or, where no reply arrives, the day the month for replying expired, and to lodge well inside it. The WRC process is then the same one that applies to dismissal complaints: the complaint goes in through the eComplaint portal; mediation is free, voluntary and confidential; written submissions are due 15 working days before the hearing; hearings are in public and the parties are named in the published decision unless special circumstances exist; and the WRC does not award legal costs, so each side pays its own. Either party may appeal to the Labour Court within 42 days of the date of the decision. The WRC Deadline Calculator is built for dismissal dates, but the discipline is the same: write every date down before anything else.

5. Compensation: 104 Weeks or €40,000, Whichever Is Greater

The Act sets a ceiling of 104 weeks’ remuneration or €40,000, whichever is greater. Two points follow. The figure is a limit, not a prediction: with no reported decision under the Act there is no body of outcomes to measure against. And the alternative fixed sum matters for lower-paid employees, for whom 104 weeks’ pay may come to less than €40,000. For most employees who notify in time, compensation is the fallback rather than the aim. The practical goal is to keep working until 66, which is why the notification and the employer’s written reply matter more than the arithmetic.

6. The Code of Practice on Longer Working 2026

The Code of Practice on Longer Working 2026 replaces the 2017 code, and it is the standard against which an employer’s written reasons will be read. The detail of the Code is beyond this guide, and no decision has yet applied it. The point for an employee is a simple one: an employer still working from a retirement policy written under the 2017 code is answering a 2026 notification with an older rulebook, and its reply should be tested against the current Code. The point for an employer is the mirror image. The firm advises employers who receive a notification on the one month they have to reply and on what the reasons need to cover, and never acts for both sides of the same dispute.

7. The Employment Equality Acts Age Ground in Parallel

The 2025 Act is not the only route. Age is one of the nine grounds under the Employment Equality Acts 1998-2015, and a discriminatory dismissal complaint on the age ground has no service requirement. A compulsory retirement can therefore be challenged as age discrimination alongside, or instead of, a complaint under the 2025 Act. The Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977-2015 also deem a dismissal unfair where it results wholly or mainly from age, under section 6(2), but age is not among the grounds that waive the one-year service requirement in section 6(2A), so that route depends on your service. The full list of section 6(2) grounds, and which of them waive the service rule, is in automatically unfair dismissals in Ireland, and the general framework of the Acts is in unfair dismissal in Ireland: the complete guide. Which combination fits depends on the dates, the service and what the employer wrote, and the choice should be made before anything is lodged.

8. If Your Retirement Date Is Inside the Window Now

For an employee whose contractual retirement date falls within the next 12 months, the steps are these:

• Find the age. Read the contract, the handbook and the pension scheme rules, and note which document says what;
• Fix the dates. Work out the date you reach the contractual retirement age, then the date 12 months before it and the date 3 months before it. If today falls between those two dates, the window is open;
• Notify in writing now. State that you do not consent to retire before the State pension age of 66, give the date of your contractual retirement age, date the letter, keep a copy and keep proof of delivery;
• Diarise one month. That is the employer’s period to reply with reasons. Note whether a reply arrives, and what it says;
• Sign nothing. No retirement acknowledgement, pension drawdown form or exit document, and no agreed leaving date in correspondence;
• If the window has closed, take advice immediately. The equality route does not depend on the window, and the facts may still support a complaint;
• If the window has not opened, diarise the opening date and prepare the letter in advance.

The practice page on retirement age dismissal and the 2025 Act sets out how the firm handles a notification, a refusal and the WRC complaint that follows. The Act is new, and the employee who notifies inside the window with proof of delivery is the one it was written to protect.