Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his opening statement. I ask members to confine their questioning to ten or 15 minutes each. Before I call Deputy Sean Fleming, I would like to ask the Minister of State about the headline issue. The annual retirement prediction for 2012 was 19,436. This afternoon, we are discussing 560 retirements that were not anticipated. Have these retirements taken place in line with the reductions that were sought in the overall public sector figure? I assume that figure will be taken into account in 2013, in terms of meeting the overall target for reductions in public sector numbers.