Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 1136: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of staff in his Department, including all authorities, agencies or other institutions under the aegis of his Department, who have applied for the incentivised early retirement scheme and the incentivised career break scheme; the number who have been made redundant in the past 12 months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29308/09]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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To date, 13 applications have been received from staff of my Department to retire under Circular 12/09: Incentivised Scheme of Early Retirement. The closing date for this scheme is 1 September, 2009.

In addition, 24 applications for career breaks have been received from staff of this Department under Circular 13/09: Special Civil Service Incentive Career Break Scheme 2009, by the closing date of 1 July, 2009.

I can confirm that no staff of my Department have been made redundant in the past 12 months. Data on staff made redundant by bodies under the aegis of the Department is not readily available and will be forwarded to the Deputy as soon as it is available.

The application of these schemes to the wider education sector has only recently been agreed with the Department of Finance. Circulars issued on 26 June, 2009, to bodies in the wider education sector, with employees eligible for these schemes and on 2 July, 2009 to bodies in the higher education sector. As agreed between this Department and the Department of Finance, the closing dates for applications are 14 August, 2009, for the Special Civil Service Incentive Career Break Scheme 2009 and 11 September, 2009, for the Incentivised Scheme of Early Retirement. I have requested officials of my Department to forward information on numbers of applications in the education sector to you following the closing dates of the two schemes.