Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Purcell might be surprised at me asking this question as everybody thinks the sole purpose of the committee is to cut costs. We are here to ensure value for money and fair play. The additional hours payments are a fundamental part of core pay. Having examined the chart detailing additional hours, it seems it is almost the only category that is not pensionable. Why is this? Everybody has indicated that, essentially, all of these allowances are part of core pay, but because of the social partnership agreement they had to be negotiated outside it. They had to be called allowances because there could be no pay increases. Why are they not pensionable?