Written answers

Thursday, 7 February 2013

Department of Public Expenditure and Reform

Departmental Staff

Photo of Sandra McLellanSandra McLellan (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the number of retired public sector workers on pensions have been re-instated in other positions within the public sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6405/13]

Photo of Brendan HowlinBrendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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In response to the Deputy’s question the Public Appointments Service (PAS), in the course of running recruitment competitions for the public service, avails, inter alia, of trained and experienced retired public servants as interviewers, assessors and as decisions arbitrators. At any given time, PAS would have approximately sixty active on their database that would be used from time to time for short periods. For this work, retired members are paid on a fee-per-day basis and are subject to tax and other relevant deductions. The fees are linked to pre-retirement grades and take account of the principal of pension abatement. These positions are not advertised but any trained professionals can apply to PAS to be placed on the data base for our selection boards.

The outgoing Chairman of the Public Appointments Service Board, who is a former Civil Servant, was reappointed by me in September 2011.

The Chairperson of the PAS Internal Audit Committee is also former Public Servant and was appointed by the former Chief Executive of PAS on the basis of her experience in the area of corporate governance.

The Office of Public Works has engaged the services of a former member of staff for the period of the EU Presidency. This person was selected because of previous experience of EU Presidencies and other important events. The abatement principle was considered to be a cost effective way of contributing to the smooth running of all EU Presidency events in Dublin Castle.

There are no other retired public sector workers currently on my Department's payroll.

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