Fine Gael insists it will press ahead with plans to raise the retirement age to 67 next year despite one of its own Cabinet ministers casting doubt over the plan yesterday.

Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan signalled the Government was plotting a U-turn on increasing the qualifying age for a State pension next year with the proposal becoming a major issue in the general election campaign – but this suggestion was later scotched by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

The retirement age increase has sparked fears that workers who are forced to retire at 65 will have to apply for jobseekers’ benefit for two years.

Fianna Fáil is to carry out a review of the plan, while Labour has pledged to stop the age being increased and Sinn Féin said it would reduce the State pension age to 65.

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Mr Flanagan told RTÉ’s ‘The Week In Politics’ yesterday that the plan needed to be “seriously looked at, urgently” and responded “yes, it needs to be looked at” when asked if Fine Gael was backtracking on the policy.

But Mr Varadkar later insisted the plan to raise the retirement age to 67 was going ahead while promising a “transition pension or early retirement pension” to address anomalies. The Taoiseach argued it would be “irresponsible” to reverse the pension age hike as it would hamper the State’s ability to meet future pension obligations for the country’s ageing population.

“What we propose to do there is to bring in a transition pension or an early retirement pension, like existed in the past, for those who are contractually required to retire earlier,” he said.

“For those who aren’t contractually required to retire before 67, we think that policy should continue.”

Mr Varadkar was backed by his Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe.

A source close to Mr Flanagan later denied any confusion or division within Fine Gael.

It came after Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said he would seek to outlaw contracts that force people to retire at 65 and “review” the planned increase to 67. “It needs to be a level playing pitch all round for pensioners and I think the whole idea of compulsory retirement at 65 has to change and I would look for graduated retirements,” he said.

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