Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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314. To ask the Minister for Health if a former HSE employee in receipt of a public service pension is entitled to return to work for the HSE through an agency without affecting their pension; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48720/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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In cases of skills shortages in the public sector, it may be necessary for a retiree to be re-hired by their former employee for a period of time. In those cases, the pension of the retiree is abated.

The purpose of abatement is to ensure that the combined total income of a public service pensioner from salary and pension does not exceed the income that the pensioner would have received had he not retired from his public service post.

In relation to the Deputy’s question, if the retiree is employed by an agency, then the individual is not an employee of the HSE. Consequently, the question of abatement does not arise.