Dominic Hannigan (Meath East, Labour)
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Question 207: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the position regarding staff who have moved from southern Departments to the all-island bodies in terms of their pension entitlements; if they are a part of the North-South pension scheme and if their years of service have been transferred to that scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31495/11]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The North-South Implementation Bodies were set up in 1999 under the Good Friday Agreement. There are six bodies in total, comprising Waterways Ireland, the Food Safety Promotion Board, the Trade and Business Development Body, the Special EU Programmes Body, the North/South Language Body and the Foyle, Carlingford and Irish Lights Commission (Loughs Agency)

Five of the six bodies are affiliated to the North/South Pension Scheme (NSPS), with membership being compulsory for southern-based staff. The exception is the Foyle, Carlingford and Irish Lights Commission (Loughs Agency), which has stayed outside the NSPS, and whose staff have other pension arrangements. Tourism Ireland is also affiliated to the scheme.

Much of the original staffing of the North/South bodies was provided by way of compulsory transfer of persons already employed in the Irish public service. Under the Implementation Bodies agreement between the Irish and British Governments, the pension terms of such staff were protected insofar as those terms were to be not less favourable than the terms they held just before their transfer, for example, Irish civil service pension terms.

Persons who benefitted from this pension protection and who have not opted to switch to other pension terms are categorized as Reserved Rights members of the NSPS. This means that their pension terms are as applying in the prior public service employment at the date of transfer; this reflects the wider guarantee of "no less favourable" treatment for transferees. This effectively means, among other things, that their years of service for pension purposes are transferred.

Certain transferred persons in NSPS-affiliated Implementation Bodies who benefitted from this pension protection have since opted to avail of a once-off option to switch from Reserved Rights NSPS membership to the mainstream membership category in the NSPS, which is known as Core Terms. This is the default scheme variant for directly-hired employees of NSPS-affiliated Bodies; it provides non-co-ordinated pensions, which means that the occupational pension is not reduced by reference to the State Pension, along with inflation-linkage for post-retirement increases.