Written Answers. - Pension Provisions.
Andrew Boylan
Question:
625
Mr. Boylan
asked the
Minister for Education and Science
if he will secure the full restoration of parity and payment of the long service increment for retired principals and deputy principals of community and comprehensive schools who retired before 1 September 1996.
[21583/99]
This question concerns my Department's decision not to pay the revised scales of the principals' and deputy principals' allowances to teachers who retired prior to 1 September 1996 and not to pay the long service allowance to teachers who retired prior to 1 August 1996.
My Department's position in regard to the payment of these allowances is based on the advice of the Department of Finance regarding Govern ment decisions taken over the years regarding public service pensions and on the facts regarding my Department's longstanding practice.
A teacher's pay is made up of incremental salary and of a range of allowances. It is my Department's longstanding practice that the benefit of an increase in incremental salary will be reflected in the pensions of all retired teachers and that the benefit of an allowance will be reflected in the pensions of retired teachers who held that allowance in pay.
My Department's practice in regard to allowances goes back to at least 1970, when post of responsibility allowances were introduced in the case of vocational teachers. Following further discussions with teachers' unions and school management, they were introduced in the case of secondary teachers in 1971. Although the allowances were payable with retrospective effect, they were not payable to teachers who had retired prior to 1 July 1968, the agreed effective date of establishment of the allowances. The Department of Finance has confirmed that my Department's practice has not been affected by Government decisions made over the years, most recently in 1997, regarding the link between public service pay and pensions.
It was agreed under the Programme for Competitiveness and Work that the revised scales of the principals' and deputy principals' allowances would be payable to teachers with effect from 1 September 1996. In accordance with longstanding practice, the revised scales of the allowances are not payable to teachers who retired prior to that date.
I should add that the allowances in question are related to the numbers of teachers employed in the school and that the scale of the allowances held at retirement continues to be reckoned in the pension irrespective of whether the numbers fall or rise after retirement.
It is also in accordance with longstanding practice that teachers who retired prior to 1 August 1996 are not eligible to receive the benefits in their pension of the long service allowance which was introduced with effect from that date.
