Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 1 July 2021
211. Deputy Ged Nash asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if his attention has been drawn to the delays experienced by some civil service pensioners who are living abroad in terms of the late payment of pension payments as illustrated in the case of a person (details supplied); his views on whether this is a systemic problem; his plans to resolve the matter; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35590/21]
View answerThe National Shared Services Office (the "NSSO") processes Civil Service pension payments on behalf of Vote 12 Superannuation and Retired Allowances. My Department has consulted with the NSSO on this matter and they in turn have followed up with their banking partner, Danske Bank. The NSSO have provided us with a response which is summarised below.
All payments of pensions are processed by the NSSO as per pre-agreed timelines so that payments are received by pensioners on their due date. The delay in this case appears to have arisen as a result of processing by Danske Bank.
In relation to the named individual, the bank has confirmed that the payment was delayed by one day. This delay has arisen due to a processing error associated with the member’s chosen banking provider. Rather than reject the payment, the bank wanted to ensure the beneficiary received the payment as soon as possible and therefore sent the payment as a SWIFT payment. As this is a standard Euro non-SEPA cross-border payment, it took two days for this payment to clear, resulting in a one day delay.
The bank has notified NSSO that they are currently investigating potential solutions which would allow the bank to make this payment via Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) which would resolve the one day processing delay.
