Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is a long-running issue and sore. It ongoing for 15 years by now. I would also love to see a resolution. It is the case that CE supervisors are entitled to the State contributory pension, as everyone else is, but they are not entitled to a public service pension. The reason for that is, first, they are not public servants, they are not employees of the State even though the body that employs them is funded by the State and, second, they have not been paying a public sector pension contribution throughout their working life, as every public servant does. If we start giving public service pensions to people who are not public servants and have not been paying a percentage of their salary into their public service pension, there will be no end to that and that is not something that any Government can concede. If we can find some solution another way, we would be happy to do so and we want to do so.

We are on the verge of resolving a long-standing issue around school secretaries and caretakers, and this is another that we would really like to see resolved, but it can only be resolved in that context. We cannot get into a situation whereby we give public sector pensions to people who are not public servants and did not pay a public service contribution all their lives.

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