Being forced to retire at 65 in Ireland is, since 29 June 2026, a matter of statutory procedure rather than negotiation. The Employment (Contractual Retirement Ages) Act 2025 gives an employee whose contract fixes a retirement age below the State pension age of 66 the right to say in writing, inside a defined window, that they do not consent to retire, and obliges the employer to answer in writing with reasons within one month. A refusal can be taken to the Workplace Relations Commission. This page sets out the notification window, the employer’s reply, the WRC remedy and the documents that decide each step.
Law as at 4 October 2026: The Employment (Contractual Retirement Ages) Act 2025 commenced on 29 June 2026 and the Code of Practice on Longer Working 2026 replaces the 2017 code. The provisions are new and untested at the WRC. Confirm the current position before acting on it.
Forced to Retire at 65 in Ireland: What the 2025 Act Changes
The problem the Act addresses is a gap of a year. Many contracts of employment, handbooks and pension schemes still fix a retirement age of 65, while the State pension is not paid until 66. An employee retired at 65 against their will can be left for a year with neither a salary nor the State pension. The Act does four things about that. It gives the employee the right to 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. It requires the employer to reply in writing, with reasons, within one month. It provides for a WRC complaint within 6 months. And it sets compensation at up to 104 weeks’ remuneration or €40,000, whichever is greater. Alongside it, 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, which is where every later dispute will be decided.
The Contractual Retirement Age and the Notification Window
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 handbook and any pension scheme rules incorporated into it, because the age is not always where the employee expects. 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 receipt and the 6 months for any WRC complaint will be measured against the same calendar. The WRC Deadline Calculator is built for dismissal dates, but the same discipline applies: write the dates down before anything else.
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. 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 farewell 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.
Retirement Age Dismissal: The WRC Remedy
A WRC complaint under the Act lies within 6 months. Which event starts that clock is one of the questions the WRC has yet to decide, so the safe course is to count from the earliest candidate, the employer’s written refusal, and to file inside six months of it. The complaint goes in through the WRC eComplaint portal, and the process is the standard one: mediation first, free, voluntary and confidential; then written submissions due 15 working days before the hearing; a hearing in public with the parties named in the published decision unless special circumstances exist; evidence on oath where required; remote hearings available unless the interests of justice require otherwise; and no award of legal costs to either side. Compensation is capped at 104 weeks’ remuneration or €40,000, whichever is greater. Either party may appeal to the Labour Court within 42 days. Two older routes sit alongside the new one. Age is one of the grounds under the Employment Equality Acts 1998-2015, and a discriminatory dismissal claim under those Acts has no service requirement. And where an employer dismisses an employee rather than retiring them, the ordinary unfair dismissal analysis applies, with the burden on the employer under section 6(1) of the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977-2015. The guide to automatically unfair dismissals lists the grounds on which no service is needed.
Work Past 65: What to Do and When
- Now: find the contractual retirement age in the contract, handbook and pension rules, and calculate the date you reach it;
- 12 to 3 months before: notify the employer in writing that you do not consent to retire before 66, and keep proof of delivery;
- The following month: wait for the written reasons, sign nothing, and diary the day the month expires;
- On a refusal or silence: take advice at once, and treat the six months for a WRC complaint as running from that day;
- Throughout: keep every document, because a dispute under a new Act is decided on the paper the parties can produce.
The guide to forced retirement at 65 and the new rights from June 2026 walks through the same timeline with worked dates.
For Employers With a Contractual Retirement Age
We also act for employers, never on both sides of the same dispute. An employer with a contractual retirement age below 66 should expect notifications and have a process for answering them inside the month, in writing and with reasons that can be defended against the Code of Practice on Longer Working 2026. Silence is the one response that cannot be defended. Because the provisions are untested, an early and documented engagement with the employee, including mediation through workplacemediation.ie, will usually cost less than being the first employer to argue the point in public at the WRC.
Told to Retire at 65? Check the Window First
Bring the contract, the pension rules and any letter about retirement. One consultation fixes the contractual retirement age, the dates of the notification window and what to put in the letter.
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