Paul McGrath
Question:62 Mr. McGrath asked the Minister for Education the financial parameters within which the recently announced early retirement package for teachers will operate.
Written Answers. - Teachers' Retirement.
The current position in regard to the teachers' claims for early retirement is that all sides have agreed to participate in a Working Group of the Conciliation Council for Teachers at which all outstanding aspects of the claims can be examined.
The official side — the Department of Education and Finance — has agreed, in principle, to negotiate changes in the teachers' superannuation schemes which would allow for early retirement provisions: (a) in the case of those teachers who no longer find themselves able to function at an acceptable level of professional performance, and (b) in situations where there are teachers who are surplus to requirements but who cannot readily be transferred elsewhere; any such provision to be implemented flexibly including, for example, the possibility of according priority to teachers over a certain age.
It has been agreed that a working group of the Conciliation Council would be the appropriate forum for these negotiations. All parties agree that discussions in the working group will be substantive and will be concluded by 30 September, 1994.
The negotiations will be conducted within the ambit of the "Agreement on Pay, Conditions of Employment and Cooperation at the level of the Enterprise between the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and Employer Organisations" which forms part ofThe Programme for Competitiveness and Work. Accordingly, any settlement reached as a result of the negotiations would be within the overall financial parameters of that agreement.