Tom Neville (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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144. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if a person (details supplied) in County Kerry will be able to retain their current rate of occupational pension benefit on medical grounds if they were to transfer to an occupational retirement pension; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27393/18]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The person to whom the Deputy refers was awarded early retirement on grounds of permanent ill health.  Once retirement is awarded on this basis and the pension has come into payment, the superannuation scheme does not permit the award to be re-classified or transferred to an alternative retirement option.

The granting of pension benefits to teachers is governed by the teachers superannuation schemes within which is set down specific criteria to be satisfied in order for retirement on medical grounds to be approved. The criteria to be met is that the person has become incapable by reason of infirmity of discharging his/her duties as a teacher and that the infirmity is likely to be permanent. Under the scheme the decision to approve such retirement is grounded in the medical evidence and the recommendation of the Occupational Health Physician tasked by the Department to assess that evidence. Where retirement is approved on medical grounds, benefits are generally augmented through the award of enhanced years of service for calculating those benefits. 

A teacher who is awarded pension early on medical grounds may not subsequently engage in teaching. Where however a full recovery is made and the person wishes to return to employment, s/he must, prior to taking up employment, provide fresh medical evidence of this to the Department for review by the Occupational Health Physician.  Where it is satisfactorily established that the teacher is no longer unfit to teach, pension in payment would cease.