Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour)
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480. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if the case of a person (details supplied) who has been waiting for the return of a pension query form 1 for 18 months from the Department in order to get an estimate of pension benefits will be investigated; if a reply will issue directly to the person to allow them to make a decision on retirement before 1 February 2021; and if there is a general delay or a backlog in such queries or if this delay is a one-off issue. [4371/21]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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I am pleased to inform the Deputy that officials from the Pension Unit of my Department have clarified that direct contact has been made with the person referred to in their query. A statement in response to this person’s request has been issued.

Every year the Pension Unit receives retirement applications from approximately 1500 teaching and non-teaching staff of primary and secondary schools. The Unit also receives several thousand statement requests. The core priority of the Pension Unit in any year and, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic, is the smooth transition from payroll to pension of the 1500 teaching and non-teaching staff who applied to retire and were eligible to do so, in that given year. The next priority group are those seeking statements for retirement planning, which encompasses the person to whom the Deputy refers. These requests are dealt with in order of date of receipt.

To support retirement planning, the Pension Unit has also made available to scheme members a pensions estimator called a Modeller on the Department of Education website. This modeller can estimate pension benefits based on the salary and service details entered by a scheme member.