Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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598. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the reason his Department has failed to address the pension entitlement issues of those former employees of his Department that transferred to Aer Rianta before April 1970; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3546/15]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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As Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, I have no function in relation to the administration of the Irish Airlines (General Employees) Superannuation Scheme (IASS).  However, I understand that this topic has been the subject of a number of reviews by my predecessors and senior civil servants in my Department over the years in which legal advice was sought on the matter.  The position is that former employees of the Department of Transport and Power voluntarily resigned from the civil service upon accepting posts with Aer Rianta.

On transfer to Aer Rianta with their agreement, those employees also transferred from the Civil Service Pension Scheme to the IASS.

It is the Department’s view that DAA (formerly Aer Rianta) has complied with its obligations to these former civil servants with regard to their pension entitlement in accordance with the terms agreed at the time they accepted a contract of employment with Aer Rianta.