Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 1120: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if her Department will be responsible in the future for paying pension increases directly to retired teachers rather than the Department sending a circular to the vocational educational committee. [24760/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Responsibility for the award of pensions and retirement gratuities to former staff of institutes of technology, IOTs, and vocational education committees, VECs, is a matter for either the VEC or IOT, which decides the level of gratuity and rate of pension payable to each individual, and by the associated local authority, county council or borough authority, which makes the actual payments. As serving staff, including teachers, are directly employed and paid by IOTs and VECs, I do not propose that the pension payment function should transfer to my Department.

However, arising from the transfer to my Department from the Department of the Environment and Local Government of the regulatory function in respect of superannuation schemes for IOT and VEC staff, it has been agreed between my Department and that Department that it would be administratively more appropriate that responsibility for the pension payment function should transfer from the local authorities to the VECs and IOTs, where appropriate. Discussions involving the respective Departments, VECs, IOTs, local authorities and other interested parties, in regard to the arrangements for the transfer of payments are currently under way.