Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 93: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will report on his involvement in transition teams to manage the exodus of staff from the public sector under the early retirement scheme by the end of February 2012. [10763/12]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I remind the Deputy there is no generally available incentivised scheme of early retirement in operation at present in the public or civil service. Many of the retirements at this time are occurring in the normal course where an individual has reached retirement age. There are also cases where individuals are availing of cost-neutral early retirement, which allows retirement earlier than normal retirement age, but with an off-setting actuarial reduction applied to the individual's lump sum and pension.

The latest information from across the public service indicates that over 7,000 people have applied to retire in the first two months of the year. The sectoral breakdown of applications is as follows:

Health 2,567

Education 2,058

Civil Service 1,236

Local Authority 931

Defence 362

Garda 310

Total 7,464

When public service salaries were reduced in 2010, it was agreed by the then Government that persons retiring during a transitional or grace period would have their retirement benefits calculated on the basis of the previous payscale levels before the salary cut. That grace period will now expire on 29 February 2012. Public service managers have known about the grace period for the past 18 months and have therefore had time to plan accordingly.

As the Deputy is aware, the Government has ensured that Transition Teams have been put in place in each of the sectors to deal with the specific short-term challenges arising from the ending of the grace period and to manage the process in their respective sectors. These teams are drawn from the existing Workforce Planning Groups.

The Transition Teams have reported on their plans to manage the reduction in staff numbers arising from retirements to end-February and I have brought these to Government. Based on the information received from the Transition Teams, I am satisfied that due consideration has been given by each of the sectors to the impact of the staffing reductions and the most appropriate and expeditious ways of managing these. I would add that these departures represent less than 3 per cent of staff serving in the public service so it would be unduly alarmist to categorise them as an "exodus".

As they have the most current information on service provision at a local level, each sectoral Transition Team has been directed to actively communicate with the public via whichever means appropriate in order to allay concerns with regard to critical front-line service delivery. Public concerns about service levels should be addressed proactively and the public should be kept informed of business continuity arrangements that are in place. In the case of the civil service, material from the Transition Team process is available on my Department's website. For the wider public service, information can be provided by the relevant Minister.

Beyond the February 2012 grace period deadline, the Strategic Workforce Planning Groups in each sector will continue to ensure that sectoral employers develop plans to deal on an ongoing basis with the operational and strategic consequences arising from the reductions in public service staffing numbers.