Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The wording of my question may have led to its being misunderstood. The phrase "or body under his aegis" refers to the wider role of the Minister in public sector reform and throughout the public service. I am trying to get information on the phenomenon of the re-hiring of people who took early retirement and were in receipt of big lump sum payments. Although people who are retired from the top echelons of the public service and in local authorities have very substantial pensions, it is often the case that days or weeks following retirement they are being re-hired on salaries which, when combined with their pensions, are effectively at the level of their previous salaries, along with significant retirement lump sums. I was hoping to get informative figures on the extent of this phenomenon. I take the point that the question may not specify that request. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence that this is happening, which is alarming. Levels of public services are declining, resulting in long waiting lists for social welfare and other areas. Front-line services are suffering due to the moratorium on recruitment, while people who were at the top of the public service and in local authorities are being taken back after retirement. That is a big problem.

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