Mr. Seán Ó Foghlú:

The previous question was about Department staff directly. This question really concerns teachers, primarily, who are also on our payroll. We operate the biggest payroll in the State. We have, I think, just over 100,000 payees. The supplementary pension is a top-up pension paid by occupational pension providers in the period between retirement and age 66 to public servants who paid class A PRSI in order to ensure that they are not disadvantaged. It is a rule of the pension scheme that a supplementary pension should cease or be abated as appropriate when a pensioner applies for and comes into receipt of the State pension. This fact would have been documented to pensioners. The advent of new pension legislation in late 2012 facilitated the sharing of information between this Department and the Department of Social Protection. In late 2012 and early 2013, the Department conducted an analysis of those pensioners over 65 who were in receipt of a supplementary pension. On completion of this analysis and a follow-up exercise, about 320 teacher pensioners were identified as being in receipt of a supplementary pension to which they were no longer entitled as they were also in receipt of a State pension from the Department of Social Protection. Payment of the supplementary pension ceased as soon as possible and the overpayment calculated. The gross overpayments amounted to €2.7 million, however, net of statutory deductions they were likely to be in the region of €1.5 million. We have been putting arrangements in place for that to be rebated. Now we share information with the Department of Social Protection to ensure that it does not recur.