Ms Lucy O'Donoghue:

Mr. Moran did not opt out of the scheme. He stayed in the pension scheme in the Central Bank until his retirement. When he moved to the Central Bank, he applied to transfer his service to the Central Bank in order that it would all be counted together. There was some administrative delay in that transfer happening, so I contacted the Department of Finance. The occupational part of Mr. Moran’s service was transferred directly and the only contributory part related to the spouses and children’s scheme. A question arose as to whether that sum was going to be transferred to the Central Bank. In the conversation we had with the Department, it transpired Mr. Moran was very unlikely, in the circumstances, to ever benefit from the scheme and, therefore, the Department took the decision to repay him directly for those years of contributions while he had been at the Department. His position at the Central Bank was such that he remained a member of the spouses and children’s scheme and he had those refunded on his retirement. Otherwise, we would have had to make a different case in the Central Bank not to allow him, because it is a compulsory scheme.