Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 November 2014
451. Deputy Terence Flanagan asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the number of staff that are drawing down retirement pensions from the public sector or Civil Service and have been brought back on contract work or temporary contracts to work in his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44117/14]
Amharc ar fhreagraDetails are set out in the following table of the retired officials of my Department who are currently re-employed on temporary contracts.
|
Year - 2014 |
2014 |
2014 |
|
Grade |
Position Held |
Duration |
|
Assistant Secretary |
To assist in the preparation of files for the National Archives |
Contract for a maximum of 10 weeks spread over the twelve months of 2014 |
|
Counsellor |
Passport Appeals Officer |
Three-year contract from 4 April 2014 to deal with appeals as and when they arise |
|
Senior Development Specialist |
To assist with a Consular Services project |
Contract for an initial 3 month period in 2014 |
From time to time, a number of retired Public Sector officials and retired Civil Servants from other Departments are engaged to assist on interview boards in my Department.
My Department's Development Cooperation Division also occasionally engages a small number of retired staff for short-duration specialist consultancy projects connected with the activities of Irish Aid.
The policy of my Department regarding the re-engagement of retired officials is to do so to the minimum extent possible. However, for certain once-off or short-duration projects, it is more productive and cost-effective to re-engage retired staff who already have the relevant expertise and experience than to go through a time-consuming and relatively expensive recruitment, induction and training process. Where it occurs, retired staff are usually re-engaged on a pension abatement basis, which means in effect that they continue to receive their pensions and are paid correspondingly reduced salaries by the Department.
