Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 750: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills if she will support the following matter (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31745/10]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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I can confirm that no Secretary General and three Assistant Secretaries General, from my Department, have retired over the last five years. The lump sums for the three officers totalled €464,777. The three officers in question retired under different schemes. As a result, the percentage of final salary that their lump sums represent is different in each case. i.e. in the case of the voluntary retirement with full service the lump sum represented 150% of their final salary, in the case of the early retirement it represented 86% of their final salary and in respect of the Incentivised Scheme of Early Retirement (ISER) it represented 119% of their final salary. In the case of the ISER, 10% of the lump sum has been paid to date and the remaining 90% will be paid when the officer reaches the relevant normal preserved pension age, 60 or 65 years, as appropriate.

It should be noted that all lump sum superannuation benefits (i.e. retirement lump sums and all gratuities) are calculated by reference to pensionable remuneration and reckonable service (Pensionable remuneration is the aggregate of pensionable salary and any pensionable benefits which are additional to basic salary). The retirement lump sum is calculated as 3/80ths of this pensionable remuneration for each year of reckonable service, subject to a maximum of 1.5 times pensionable remuneration.