Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-15
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Peter Burke (FG), Longford-Westmeath

I thank the Deputy for his question. I want to clearly point out that the underpayments and overpayments in question have come about through a series of administrative errors in the National Shared Services Office, NSSO. Critically, the cohort of people who are affected include, first, retired civil servants who previously work-shared and whose pensions were undercalculated and, second, current and former Ministers and officeholders and retired civil and public servants. Those are the cohorts who are affected by the error in the NSSO. Primarily for Government Ministers, what has happened is that, through a series of Government decisions where Ministers took a deduction in their pay, a salary sacrifice, the question was posed of whether the pension deduction calculation should be on the gross salary or on the net amount that was sacrificed. This was obviously brought to the attention of the Minister for public expenditure and reform last year.
Unlike what the Deputy said, there was a public statement on the matter and the Minister answered questions at that time. This was not the fault of any politician or former civil servant; it was an error by the NSSO. The Government immediately committed to having a review carried out by Derek Moran, the chairperson of the NSSO. That will report in March to ensure that something like this does not happen again.
Regarding the ten Ministers the Deputy cites who currently have not concluded the pay agreement to repay moneys owed, a number of clarifications have been sought about the calculations that were brought forward. I know that everyone has the right to ensure that they are paying the correct amount and every single Minister wants to ensure they are doing that. That is very important.
The Government is crystal clear that any retired civil servant or Minister who does not comply or pay back what is due to the Exchequer will not receive their pension because this is a key requirement in funding their pension. I also robustly challenge what the Deputy says about the social welfare protection code that we have in this country. I, like many politicians, do weekly clinics, meeting constituents who are very vulnerable. The Department of Social Protection does not demand a repayment immediately. It works out payment plans that respect vulnerable citizens throughout the State.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:30+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-15