Louise O'Reilly
Question:
233. Deputy Louise O'Reilly asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation the provisions which have been made to ensure that agencies, organisations, and charities funded by his Department will meet their obligations under the new AE scheme. [62478/25]
View answer
I wish to advise the Deputy that a deferred reply will be issued to her in respect of this Parliamentary Question, in line with Standing Order 52(1)(b).
The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 52.
I wish to advise the Deputy that five of the six bodies under the aegis of the Department are Civil Service Offices, which are staffed by civil servants already covered by pension schemes, such as the Single Pension Scheme or the civil service pre-existing pension schemes. These are the Office of Public Works (OPW), the National Shared Services Office (NSSO), the Public Appointments Service (PAS), the Office of the Ombudsman and the State Laboratory. The sixth body is the Office of the Regulator of the National Lottery (ORNL) which is funded directly through a levy payable by the operator of the National Lottery and not through the Department. All employees of the ORNL are already members of a pension scheme.
The position with regard to organisations that are grant funded by the Department is as follows:
· Transparency International Ireland (TII) receives grant funding from my Department to support the Department’s role in the implementation of the Protected Disclosures Act. The Department provides this funding in order to help workers raise concerns regarding potential wrongdoing that has come to their attention in the workplace. Provision will be made in the 2026 grant funding agreement with TII to ensure that all AE obligations are met.
The Department provides grant funding to the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and the Institute of Public Administration (IPA) to support their activities:
o Staff of the ESRI are either members of existing ESRI pension schemes or are ‘new joiners’ to the public service since 2013 and so are enrolled in the Single Public Service Pension Scheme.
o IPA staff are covered by existing pension schemes, which are the IPA Superannuation (consolidation) scheme 2010 and the Single Public Service Pension Scheme.
· The Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) is a North South Implementation Body. My Department is joint sponsor for the SEUPB along with the Department of Finance in Northern Ireland. As a North South Implementation Body, the SEUPB operates under the policy direction of the North South Ministerial Council (NSMC) which I jointly sponsor with Minister for Finance Northern Ireland. The staff of the SEUPB are members of the North South Pension Scheme.
