Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I wish to be associated with the condolences offered by Deputy Michael McGrath to the deputy leader of Fianna Fáil, Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív, on the death of his mother, Emer Uí Chuív.

This is a retirement scheme which, as I am sure the Deputy will recall, was arranged and introduced by the late Brian Lenihan, with a retirement date of February 2012. What it means in practice is the bringing forward of retirements which would have been due to take place this year and next year of staff close to retirement age. It is different from a special scheme. It merely allows people to take advantage of the additional pension income they will derive as a consequence of taking retirement earlier, as set out by the Deputy's late colleague, Brian Lenihan, when Minister for Finance. Therefore, the Deputy's mystification about it now is a little odd. Perhaps he did not understand it at the time and that is the reason he is now befuddled.

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