Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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I will comment briefly and repeat what my colleague said. The fact the number of retirees was 63% more than what was estimated is incredible. The figure was underestimated by over two thirds. The bigger issue, which touches on what Deputy Jan O'Sullivan said, is whether we have a significant number of teachers retiring early. If it is the case, we need to try to understand why they are doing so. Is the job so onerous that people feel they have to retire early? I completely understand it in the case of teaching principals. I attended their conference last Saturday week. Quite a significant number - I think one third - of teaching principals are retiring early. If there is a problem, we need to be able to try to get to the root of it. There has been an additional Supplementary Estimate every year since 2014. It seems it is being continually underfunded which does not make sense. The Department of Defence has put a measure in place to make sure it does not happen with Army pensions. It could possibly be looked at. The Minister is saying it will not happen again. How confident is the Department on its projected figures for next year?