Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 617: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of staff within agencies within the remit of his Department who have availed of early retirement schemes in each of the past three years; the breakdown of such by the grade and age of the staff who availed of the schemes; the breakdown of the reasons for granting early retirement. [35841/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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Early retirement schemes are not generally available in organisations under the aegis of my Department. However, in particular circumstances arising in two such organisations, early retirement was availed of by 7 staff over the past 3 years.

St Catherine's College of Education in Home Economics closed on 31 August 2007. The decision to close St. Catherine's was made following consideration of the future of the College arising from notification by the Trustees of the College that they were not in a position to continue their role into the future. Prior to its closure, the Department of Education and Science provided the majority of the College's funding. Early retirement was offered as part of a range of options (the others being redundancy or redeployment) that were put in place for the permanent staff of the College specifically for the closure. The terms of the early retirement scheme offered to staff were equivalent to Strand 3 early retirement for teachers. Of the total of 20 permanent staff who were still employed by the College in 2007, six individuals availed of the early retirement package. The grades of those who accepted early retirement under this scheme were President of the College (2008), 4 Lecturers (2007) and 1 Librarian (2007). The ages of the staff concerned range from 47 to 61.

In the National Educational Welfare Board (NEWB), 1 member of staff has been approved for early retirement in the past 3 years. The NEWB was established in 2002. At the time of transfer of personnel from the School Attendance Service to the Board, the Labour Court recommended that 8 places be made available for Voluntary Early Retirement (VER) for eligible personnel who did not wish to transfer to the new service and 7 applicants were approved for the scheme.

One applicant for the VER was not eligible at that time on age grounds and subsequently made an application when the age grounds were met. This application was rejected by the NEWB. However, a Labour Court Hearing upheld the application for VER in view of the one remaining position for VER which had not been utilised. The Board received sanction from the Department of Finance to implement the decision of the court, conditional on a written commitment from the Union involved that no consequential claims would be made for additional VER and that the cost would be met from within the resources of the Board. The staff member concerned retired on 5th October 2007, aged 51 years. There is no current VER scheme in operation by the NEWB.