Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail)
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Question 43: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will give a guarantee to the Irish people that all support staff, including civilian drivers, currently engaged by himself, his Ministers and Ministers of State, will not be former civil or public servants or State employees who are already in receipt of a pension from their previous State employment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5179/11]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy may be aware, the Government recently announced a number of cost saving measures relating to the personal appointees of Ministers and Ministers of State. These measures include a reduction in the number staff allowed in each Minister and Minister of State's Private and Constituency Office.

The selection of Ministerial appointees is a matter for individual Ministers having regard to the particular skills, experience and capability required. The current guidelines for appointments to such positions provide that the specific sanction of the Taoiseach is required for appointments of persons from outside the civil service and application for the Taoiseach's sanction is made directly to the Taoiseach's Private Office.

Former civil and public servants who retired under the Incentivised Early Retirement Scheme are not permitted to take up any employment in the same sector from which they have retired, except in exceptional circumstances. In general, former civil or public servants being re-engaged are subject to abatement, so that they receive no more by way of pension and salary than they would have received had they remained in their former employment.