Vol. 409 No. 8
3 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Education the number of teachers at (1) first level and (2) second level who retired in each of the last three years; the number who retired on health grounds; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
The only figures readily available for the number of secondary, community and comprehensive school teachers who retired during the past three years relate to those who were members of the secondary teachers pension scheme.
|
(1) |
(2) |
(3) |
|
Year of Retirement |
Total Number of Retirements |
Total Number of Disability cases included in (2) |
|
31 July 1988 |
346 |
21 |
|
(including 201 Voluntary Redundancies) |
||
|
31 July 1989 |
166 |
29 |
|
31 July 1990 |
142 |
33 |
My Department do not have similar information in regard to vocational schools whose superannuation provisions are covered by the local government superannuation scheme.
Obviously the Minister did not give us all the figures in the tabular statements, but on the statistics she has given us would she agree that the underlying trend is that an increasing number of teachers are retiring on disability? I believe — and there is a good deal of evidence to suggest this — that teaching is becoming a more stressful occupation. People cannot however retire from teaching with a guaranteed income at a young age. Would the Minister address this problem in the context of the available statistics? Will the Minister ensure that her Department will pay much more attention to this area, because it is in the interests of teachers' health that they are able to retire with a guaranteed income and at the end of the day it is in the interests of a more effective and comprehensive education system?
The Deputy's question is essentially statistical and matters of policy at this stage do not arise.
My question related to the underlying trends and I asked the Minister to address the problems they raised.
That is fine, providing that one does not engage in matters appertaining to policy.
That would be difficult because I have given out the statistics.
The statistics I sought were not provided. I was looking for the underlying statistical trends and some of the issues were not addressed in the Minister's answer.
The Deputy should await the tabular statement which will be issued with this question.
