Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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106. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the number of employees across the entire public sector with accumulated pensions in excess of €1.2 million and €1.5 million, respectively; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27700/20]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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The authorities responsible for the administration of the large number of pension schemes operating in the various sectors of the Irish public service are, in general, the relevant employers and Ministers in those sectors.

It would be a matter for those sectoral authorities, including relevant Ministers, to supply such information as may be available in respect of the pension entitlements of members of those individual pension schemes.

I and my Department are responsible for the civil service pension schemes, which cover personnel in established and unestablished civil service and State Industrial posts.

Civil servants are members of defined benefit pension schemes and there is no readily available valuation of an employees pension on an individual basis. The value attributable to the pension scheme member is based on a number of factors, including age at retirement, life expectancy, pay grade and pensionable service. 

However, the National Shared Service Office does consider whether a member's pension obligations, valued in line with Revenue capitalisation factors, exceed the Standard Fund Threshold at retirement.

It is worth noting that on 19 December 2017, this Department published a report of the actuarial review of the State's accrued liability in respect of Public Service Occupational Pensions that was carried out by my Department. 

In summary, the actuarial review found that the value of the State’s accrued liability in respect of retirement benefits for current and former public service employees is estimated to be €114.5bn as at 31 December 2015. A revised estimate based on 31 December 2018 will be published by year end 2020.

While this is a large figure, it is important to bear in mind that the accrued liability will fall to be paid over the next 70 years or so – not in any single year. It is also important to stress that we have taken a number of significant steps to improve the long-term sustainability of public service pensions in recent times. 

For example, the Single Public Service Pension Scheme introduced from 2013 will, in time, reduce liabilities by around 35% from what would otherwise have been the case.

Additionally, under the Public Service Pay and Pensions Act 2017,  the introduction of an Additional Superannuation Contribution by public servants. This increased employee pension contributions from over €700m per annum to €1.25bn in 2019, thus providing substantial additional ongoing funding support towards the cost of public service pensions from those that benefit from such pensions. 

Furthermore, the compulsory retirement age has increased from 65 to 70 for public servants recruited before 1 April 2004. This will also assist in reducing the time period over which pension payments will be paid to those public service employees who opt to remain in work longer.

The full report is published on my Department's website at the following link.