Batt O'Keeffe
Question:13 Mr. B. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Finance if it is Government policy to continue to employ people who have retired from the Civil Service on a fee per item basis. [11936/95]
Written Answers. - Employment of Retired Civil Servants.
It is Government policy that civil servants retire on reaching the age limit for their particular grade—in most cases 65—and are not subsequently re-employed.
Legislation on the Civil Service does, however, provide for the retention of civil servants after that age in very specific and limited situations. In such instances the Pensions Abatement Act, 1965, which limits the total remuneration, including pension to that previously received, applies. That Act also allows its provisions to be waived in exceptional circumstances where the Minister for Finance considers it to be in the public interest to do so.
The number of persons so retained has always been small but in recent years I and my predecessors have reduced it further and since I came to office I have sanctioned no new waivers of the abatement provision.
Some Departments employ people, including some retired civil servants, on a fee basis to perform specific tasks where the resources or skills are not readily available internally. In general, the fees paid to the retired civil servants are calculated to produce the same effect as the Pensions Abatement legislation.
There are two areas where these arrangements have been departed from.
The Attorney General's Office which regularly engages barristers to provide advice or act on behalf of the State, has a delegated authority to pay fees at approved rates to barristers. This provision has been availed of over a period to obtain the post retirement service of barristers previously employed as full time civil servants in connection with the drafting of legislation.
The Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry has long had similar authority to employ qualified veterinary practitioners as temporary veterinary inspectors to carry out certain regulatory tasks in meat factories as and when required and remunerate them on a fixed fee per session. I understand that 24 retired members of the Department's own veterinary inspectorate have been so engaged in recent times on the basis of the same fee as is paid to practitioners generally and I have arranged that all future such engagements will involve a reduction in fees to take account of pension payments.
Excluding the Civil Service Commission, which can engage in the region of 40 retired civil servants as chairpersons of interview boards in a period of a year and the temporary veterinary inspectors, the number involved is relatively low and would not normally exceed 30 at any one time.