Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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Question 151: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the way he will ensure that his request to schools to employ younger teachers is being implemented in view of the fact that concerns continue that retired teachers are still being employed in some schools and that younger qualified teachers are losing out. [24409/11]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Any decision to employ a retired teacher is a local decision made by the school authorities and not my Department. Circular 0031/2011 is aimed at ensuring that boards of management and principals only resort to employing a retired teacher in very limited circumstances. It requires a school principal to keep a record as to why a retired teacher had to be employed to cover a short-term absence. The principal must also report to the school's board of management on the instances where this arises.

Abatement of pension is applied to retired teachers where the amount of pay together with the pension being received is greater than the pay on which the pension is based. The effect of this is to reduce or sometimes stop pension where a retiree returns to teaching. In addition, from 1 January 2011, teachers who are in receipt of an occupational pension and who return to teach are remunerated at the first point of the reduced salary scales instead of their pre-retirement personal rate of pay. These provide significant disincentives to teachers on pension from returning to teach after their retirement.