Departmental Staff.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 October 2009

Tuesday, 6 October 2009

Ceisteanna (791, 792)

Damien English

Ceist:

893 Deputy Damien English asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the cost to her Department and each agency under the aegis of her Department for early retirements, termination of contracts and resignations for 2006, 2007, 2008 and to date in 2009 in tabular readable form. [33956/09]

Damien English

Ceist:

894 Deputy Damien English asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of persons in her Department and each agency under the aegis of her Department who took early retirement, had their contracts terminated or resigned in 2006, 2007, 2008 and to date in 2009 in tabular readable form. [33971/09]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Social and Family Affairs (Deputy Mary Hanafin)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 893 and 894 together.

Officers who retire from my Department before the minimum retirement age of 60 can only do so either on grounds of ill health, which is subject to the approval of the Chief Medical Officer, under the terms of the Cost Neutral Early Retirement Scheme, which was introduced in 2004 or under the Incentivised Scheme of Early Retirement (ISER) introduced in 2009.

The total cost of the early retirement pensions from 2006 to 2 October 2009 is €2,215,306.90 and the total cost of the early retirement lump sums is €5,295,179.30 (as set out in Table A).

The details of the numbers of retirements, termination of contracts and resignations in respect of my Department are set out in the Table B.

The Agencies that operate under the aegis of the Department are the Pensions Board, the Citizens Information Board, the Family Support Agency and the Office of the Pensions Ombudsman.

With effect from 1st July 2009 the Combat Poverty Agency has been subsumed into the Department.

In respect of these agencies, the total cost of the early retirement pensions from 2006 to 2 October 2009 is €78,373.91 and the total cost of the early retirement lump sums is €258,600.07 (as set out in Table C).

The details of the numbers of retirements, termination of contracts and resignations in the Agencies are set out in the Table D.

Table A

Year	Cost Neutral Early Retirement	Ill Health/Retirement	Incentivised Scheme of Early Retirement
	Pension	Lump Sum	Pension	Lump Sum	Pension	Lump Sum
	€	€	€	€	€	€
2006	100,094.97	367,716.33	196,116.54	564,462.34
2007	101,533.13	345,233.31	285,666.75	794,894.61
2008	66,509.86	213,119.33	485,991.42	1,449,803.99
2009	280,970.36	943,131.62	147,518.53	450,546.27	550,905.34	166,271.50

Table B

Year	Early Retirement	Termination	Resignation
2006	22	2	32
2007	23	5	49
2008	26	4	21
2009	44	2	12

Table C

Year	Cost Neutral Early Retirement	Ill Health/Retirement	Incentivised Scheme of Early Retirement
	Pension	Lump Sum	Pension	Lump Sum	Pension	Lump Sum
	€	€	€	€	€	€
2006	Nil	Nil	42,255.56	145,219.77
2007	Nil	Nil	12,034	34,362
2008	24,084.35	79,018.30	Nil	Nil
2009	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil	Nil

Table D

Year	Early Retirement	Termination	Resignation
2006	2	Nil	20
2007	1	Nil	26
2008	2	Nil	29
2009	Nil	Nil	8