Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Question 190: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the location and grade of all public servants within his Department or related agencies who while not having reached the minimum retirement age to avail of cost neutral early retirement will benefit from the provisions under the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Act 2009; his plans to continue the service provided by each of the retiring staff; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10570/12]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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There are no staff in my Department or related agencies retiring under Cost Neutral Early Retirement (CNER) who, while not having reached the minimum age to avail of the CNER Scheme, will benefit from the provisions under the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Act 2009.

In order to avail of the terms of the CNER Scheme an employee must have reached the minimum age of 50 in the case of staff who have a minimum preserved pension age of 60 or the minimum age of 55 in the case of staff with a minimum preserved pension age of 65. All staff who are availing of the terms of the CNER Scheme have reached the required minimum age of 50 or 55 as appropriate.

I refer the Deputy to Question No. 378 of 7th February 2012 which sets out details of the number of public servants in my Department and the agencies under my remit who, in the period 1 January 2010 to 29th February 2012, have retired or indicated their intention to retire under CNER and otherwise.

In the context of the numbers retiring, my Department's strategy has been to protect the front-line services as far as possible by deployment of resources from support and ancillary areas to critical front-line areas. My Department is also actively engaged in the public services reform process so as to make the best use of reducing human and other resources in the context of reducing numbers.