Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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66. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the number of persons who are on public or civil service pensions who have been recruited for work on any basis, permanent or temporary, under the remit of his Department in 2012, 2013 and to date in 2014; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39177/14]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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In response to the Deputy's question I can confirm that in 2012 and 2013, no public or civil servant in my Department in receipt of a pension had been recruited on a temporary or permanent basis. To date in 2014, two retired public servants were awarded temporary contracts through open competition with the Public Appointment Services.

The Audit Committee for the Office of the Ombudsman must include external members. It is also highly desirable that members have experience of corporate governance and have some knowledge of the Public Service. The Chairperson of the Ombudsman's Audit Committee and one external member of the Audit Committee are former Public Servants. The Audit Committee meets four times per annum.

In the course of running recruitment competitions to fill vacancies arising between 2012 and 2014, the Office of the Ombudsman engaged 4 trained and experienced former public servants to chair the interview panels for a total of seven days. The chairpersons of these selection boards had not worked in the Office and as such were well placed to ensure that the selection processes were conducted in an impartial and objective manner.

Following the retirement of 8 senior and experienced staff in summer 2014 and pending the completion of appointment processes for their successors, the Office was challenged to avoid backlogs developing, to keep up to date with routine work and to continue with some complex investigations. The office engaged one retired member of staff to support the Office with one high profile investigation. It is anticipated that this person will have worked for between 20 and 25 days between August and the completion of this investigation in December 2014.

Finally, the Office of the Ombudsman has engaged one retired public servant to support the work of the Commission for Public Service Appointments in examining two separate complaints. Again this person was engaged on foot of the retirement of experienced staff from the broader Office and pending appointment of their successors.

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.

While the Public Appointments Service (PAS) does not generally "recruit" former civil/public servants, in the course of running recruitment competitions for the public service it avails, inter alia, of trained and experienced retired public servants as interviewers, assessors and as decisions arbitrators. These engagements would typically be of short duration (a matter of days) and no individual has any expectation of continuing engagement. 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 principle of pension abatement. The total number of former public servants employed in 2012, 2013 and 2014 are 91, 76 and 73 respectively.

PAS would also source interviewers and assessors from among serving public servants (who would be paid no fee) as well as retired and working individuals from the private sector. The former Chairman of the Public Appointments Service Board is also a former Civil Servant; he served on the PAS Board in 2012, 2013 and up to 31st August 2014. The Chairperson of the PAS Internal Audit Committee is also a former Public Servant; she served in this role in 2012, 2013 and to date in 2014.

The Valuation Office engaged the services of one former member of staff in 2012 as an external member of an Audit Committee. In addition to this another former staff member was employed as a consultant on valuation matters in 2013. Both staff members are still currently employed.

In the period 2012 to date, the number of staff recruited by the Office of Public Works who were already in receipt of a public or civil service pension is 10, nine of whom are seasonal guides, recruited following a public recruitment process which was advertised nationally.