Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Question 991: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the cost to his Department and each agency under the aegis of his Department for early retirements, termination of contracts and resignations for 2006, 2007, 2008 and to date in 2009 in tabular readable form. [33951/09]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Question 992: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the number of persons in his Department and each agency under the aegis of his Department who took early retirement, had their contract terminated or resigned in 2006, 2007, 2008 and to date in 2009 in tabular readable form. [33966/09]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 991 and 992 together.

The information requested in relation to my Department is set out below:

There is no cost to this Department in relation to staff who retire — lump sums are paid by this Department but subsequently recouped from the Department of Finance while all other pension payments are made from the Department of Finance Vote.

Day to day staffing operational matters, including cost neutral early retirements, resignations and contract terminations, are matters for the individual agencies concerned and information would not be readily available in my Department, unless specific sanction was required. One retirement was sanctioned in 2006 by my Department and the Department of Finance under the terms of Department of Finance Circular of 26 May 1998 on Severance and Early Retirement for Chief Executives of Semi State Bodies. The retiring CEO received 3.1 added years under the terms of the circular at a lump sum cost of approximately €11,000 and an annual pension cost of approximately €4,000.

My Department is required to report to the Department of Finance on the numbers availing of the Incentivised Scheme of Early Retirement (ISER) in agencies under the aegis of my Department. Information received in September in relation to this is that 3 applications under the ISER have been approved.