Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 24 June 2021
403. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Health if he will address matters in relation to nurses receiving vaccines under the Covid-19 vaccine programme (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26212/21]
View answerAbatement was not scrapped in March. Pension abatement applies across the public service and is intended to ensure that a former public servant who is in receipt of a public service pension and who is appointed to a position, the remuneration for which is paid by a public service body, receives no more in combined pension and remuneration (including allowances) following employment post-retirement than he/she would have received in pensionable remuneration if he/she had not retired from the civil or public service.
The practice goes as far back as the Superannuation Act 1834. The application of abatement was widened in 2012 by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, insofar as it may now be applied in respect of any public service employment.
This extension of pension abatement is provided for in section 52 of the Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Act 2012.
The legislation also allows the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to remove any doubt or question arising in the application of abatement, and to waive the abatement provision in certain circumstances.
Abatement of pension under the legislation applies to public service pensions, and then only in those cases where the public service pensioner obtains public service employment following retirement. This means that abatement does not apply to pensions in cases where public service pensioners secure employment, following retirement in an organisation that is not a public service body.
