Helen Keogh
Question:137 Ms Keogh asked the Minister for Education the calculation which gave rise to her Department's £20 million to £30 million costing on the teachers' early retirement claims; and if she will publish these costings. [10950/95]
Written Answers. - Teachers' Early Retirement.
The average annual cost of over £20 million was arrived at by extending the methodology used in the costings commissioned by the teacher unions, which were prepared on a very limited basis, to cover a longer timeframe and more realistic number of teachers retiring.
The £30 million is an actuarial estimate of the additional annual liability which would arise for the first 40 years. The estimate is based on the current average age (41) of teachers and assumes that a proportion of those eligible would avail of the early retirement facility.
I consider that little purpose would be served by my Department and the teachers' side exchanging their estimated costings of the teachers' claims given the diversity in the basic assumptions used for estimation purposes. In the circumstances, I have suggested that it would be preferable if the claims were costed independently.