Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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Question 275: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the numbers of public servants in County Cavan who retired as part of the Croke Park early retirement scheme; if he will provide a breakdown of these numbers for gardaí, doctors, nurses, teachers, firemen and local authority service that is water and so on and by electoral area. [8129/12]

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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Question 276: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the numbers of public servants in County Kerry who retired as part of the Croke Park early retirement scheme; if he will provide a breakdown of these numbers for gardaí, doctors, nurses, teachers, firemen and local authority service that is water and so on and by electoral area. [8130/12]

Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Question 279: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will outline for each year from 2008 to 2015 the expected staff numbers in the public service at the end of each year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8419/12]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent)
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Question 284: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform with regard to the early retirement scheme under which public servants have the option of retiring by the end of February 2012, the analysis that was done prior to the announcement of this scheme on the number of public servants that would avail of this regarding rank or class, and at what cost; if he will release this analysis; the estimate that was made of the necessity of replacing some of these immediately, and the cost involved; and if he will release any analysis documents on this; the measures that are in place to ensure that those retiring will not be rehired by the public sector as consultants. [8485/12]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 275, 276, 279 and 284 together.

Firstly, there is no generally available incentivised scheme of early retirement in operation at present in the public or civil service. Many of the retirements at this time are occurring in the normal course where an individual has reached retirement age. There are also cases where individuals are availing of "cost-neutral early retirement", which allows retirement earlier than normal retirement age, but with an off-setting actuarial reduction applied to the individual's lump sum and pension.

When public service salaries were reduced in 2010, it was agreed by the then Government that persons retiring during a transitional or "grace" period would have their retirement benefits calculated on the basis of the previous payscale levels before the salary cut. That grace period will now expire on 29 February 2012. Persons retiring from 1 March 2012 onwards will have their retirement benefits calculated on the basis of their actual, reduced pay scale.

Secondly, estimates for retirement numbers in the public sector and public service pay bill and pensions expenditure were based on the pattern of annual retirements where approximately 5,000 to 8,000 staff retire from the public service in any given year. The issue of potential rehiring costs was not considered.

Thirdly, as I indicated in PQ no 2468 last month, there is no prohibition on civil or public servants who have retired under normal circumstances from applying for a publicly advertised public service post for which they are suitably qualified. However, restrictions on further public service appointments apply to staff who opted for early retirement under the Incentivised Scheme for Early Retirement (ISER) as set out in Department of Finance Circular 12/09 (applying to Civil Service) and the Department of Health Circular 7/2010 of 1 November 2010 (applying to the Health Service Executive).

From time to time, retired public servants are engaged by Departments for specific tasks or assignments. Such engagements are normally remunerated on a fee basis and provision exists for fees to be abated, where appropriate, by reference to pension payments.

Fourthly, Public Service numbers for the years 2008-2012 are set out in the following table.

Policy decisions have not yet been taken with regard to numbers targets for 2013 and 2014. However, as published in the Public Service Reform Plan, the Government's Public Service numbers target is 282,500 by end-2015. Lastly, details of Public Service retirements on a county basis are not held centrally. The Deputy should contact the relevant Ministers directly for such information.