Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 821 and 822 together.

The issue of pension provision was examined by a Community Sector High Level Forum, chaired by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform from in 2017 and included representatives of various Departments with responsibility for funding the community and voluntary sector, statutory agencies and also unions representing the CE supervisors.

A detailed scoping exercise was carried out for the High Level Forum with input from the Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service (IGEES), on the potential costs of providing Exchequer support for the establishment of such a pension scheme for employees across the Community and Voluntary sector in Ireland.  This exercise estimated a potential cost to the State of between €188 million and €347 million per annum depending on the numbers involved. 

This excluded any provision for immediate ex-gratia lump sum payment of pension for those imminently retiring, as sought, which could, depending on the size of the sector, give rise to a further Exchequer cost exposure of up to €318 million.

In order to estimate the cost of providing an occupational pension CE Supervisors and Assistant Supervisors alone would require additional information and analysis such as: the level of pension to be provided; the share of the cost to be borne by each of the parties including the State; the number of potential recipients; and factors such as length of service, amongst other information.

However, as stated in the High Level Forum report, the establishment of any related pension scheme will have to be considered in the wider context of employees across the Community and Voluntary sector in Ireland.