Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 606: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the position in relation to transferability of pension entitlements arising from years of teaching service in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39322/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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Teaching service given in one jurisdiction is not recognised in the other for the purpose of teachers' superannuation awards because, at present, there are no formal arrangements agreed on a North South basis for the mutual transferability of pension entitlements for people working in the public sector, including teachers. However, as the Deputy may be aware, at an Institutional Format meeting of 30 October 2007 the North/South Ministerial Council (NSMC) considered the issue of cross-border pensions mobility and agreed that the NSMC Joint Secretariat should convene a working group of officials from relevant Government Departments to explore options for going forward on the transfer of pension rights on a cross-border basis. That working group has met on a number of occasions in 2008, most recently on 10 July last. At that meeting it was agreed that a paper considering the issues, using teachers' pensions as a model, would be developed and that the Joint Secretariat would present a report to the next appropriate NSMC meeting.

Work undertaken under the auspices of the NSMC is exploring various options for putting in place arrangements for the mutual transferability of pension entitlements. Ministers meeting in the NSMC will consider the options determined by the NSMC Working Group and decide how best to move forward, taking into account the wider public sector implications, any financial implications and any relevant EU law.

At the moment it is possible in the public service to transfer the value of accrued pension entitlements from Northern Ireland to Ireland subject to certain conditions. This operates on the basis of the Northern Ireland pension scheme making available an amount of money which represents the monetary value of the pension entitlements accrued up to the point of leaving (known as the "transfer value"). This is made available for transfer to the pension scheme in Ireland provided that that scheme is included in the list of Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Schemes (QROPS) and the trustees of the Northern Ireland pension scheme are willing to effect a transfer. A value is assigned in terms of service to that transfer value and the person can be credited with that amount of service in the scheme in Ireland. The amount of service credited does not have regard to the amount time taken to accrue that value in the original employment and the credited service could be significantly less than the period worked.