Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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235. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of persons subject simultaneously to both the public service pension levy and the private pension levy for each of the past three years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4421/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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It is understood that the Deputy s reference to the public service pension levy relates to the Public Service Pension Reduction (PSPR)

Not all of the information sought by the Deputy is available.

This is due in particular to the fact that members of pension schemes are not charged with paying the stamp duty levy on pension fund assets introduced in 2011 to pay for the Jobs Initiativeand which ends this year. The levy is a charge on the trustees of funded pension schemes and on the insurers and administrators who manage the assets of such schemes and personal pension plans and it is they who are liable to pay the levy. It is up to those trustees and administrators to decide in each case whether and how the levy should be passed on and who should be impacted and to what extent, given the particular circumstances of the pension funds or pension plans for which they are responsible. I have no detailed or specific information on the decisions taken by trustees and administrators in this regard.

With regard to the numbers of persons to whom the public service pension reduction (PSPR) applies, I am informed by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform that the number of public service pensions in payment at the end of each of the years 2012, 2013 and 2014 is estimated to have been 140,000, 144,500 and 149,000 respectively. A breakdown of these figures by individual public service scheme is not available.

An estimated 40% of public service pensions are exempt from the PSPR because of the applicable thresholds; in particular public service pensions below €12,000 awarded to persons who retired up to end-February 2012 are exempt from PSPR.

I am also informed by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform that the PSPR does not apply to pensions paid by public service pension schemes that are funded and subject to the Minimum Funding Standard as specified in the Pensions Act 1990. I understand that this particular exemption is provided for in section 1 of the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2010 (FEMPI) by way of the definition therein of public service pension scheme .