Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 2 together.

All civil servants retiring from my Department are entitled to an annual pension and lump sum, in accordance with the relevant legislation and conditions of service.

Since 1997, there have been two occasions when discretionary arrangements were made in accordance with comparable terms applied previously in similar circumstances, and were so approved by the Department of Finance. In both cases, the position vacated was that of special adviser to my predecessor. In the Central Statistics Office, the terms applicable to completion of their contracts were applied on the retirement of two former directors general.

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