GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS and State agencies paid out more than €16 million to retired public service staff to carry out work on short-term contracts last year, official figures show.
The bulk of these payments were made by the Health Service Executive. The figures show the HSE paid 773 retired personnel to carry out assignments at a cost of more than €14.6 million.
In the Civil Service, more than €1.5 million was paid to about 180 retired staff members to carry out work on short-term contracts.
Details of the payments were set out in answers provided earlier this week to parliamentary questions tabled to all Government departments by Fine Gael TD for Dublin South Olivia Mitchell.
She said she had tabled the questions late last month as the issue of retired public service staff going back to work for State bodies had emerged on the doorsteps during the general election campaign.
Some of the payments included money paid to former staff for serving on interview boards. The figures do not take account of payments made to retired members of An Garda Síochána.
Minister for Education and Skills Ruairí Quinn said in his parliamentary reply that 59 retired public servants were employed on short-term contracts by his department in 2010 at a cost of €499,000.
“My department uses the services of retired public servants for a range of duties including, for example, the facilitation of various appeals processes such as those provided for under section 29 of the Education Act and those that relate to teaching staff allocations to primary and post-primary schools,” he said in his reply.
Minister for Health James Reilly said the Mental Health Commission had paid out €330,878 on three short-term contracts with retired public service staff.
Minister for Agriculture, Marine and Food Simon Coveney said in his parliamentary reply his department had employed 12 retired public servants on short-term contracts during 2010 at a total cost of €177,700.16.
Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government Phil Hogan said his department had engaged 31 retired public servants last year at a cost of €167,392.20
“Former public servants are engaged from time to time by my department in areas where specific expertise is required for a short, fixed period and they provide a level of knowledge, experience and background compatible with such requirements,” he said.
Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Pat Rabbitte said his department had employed two former public servants on short-term contracts last year at a total cost of €37,535.13.
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said the Public Appointment Service had used the services of 61 former public servants on a variety of interview boards last year at a total cost of more than €317,000.
He said the retired staff were engaged on a “board-by- board basis rather than on a contract basis”.
Mr Noonan said the Department of Finance had employed nine retired public service staff on short-term contracts last year at a cost of €90,152.
The Department of the Taoiseach did not employ any retired public service personnel last year, while the Department of Community, Equality and Gaeltacht Affairs engaged one retired public servant at a cost of €695.
The bill for the sole retired public servant engaged by the Department of Health was €1,746. The bill for the two retired staff employed by the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport was €2,934.58.
Ms Mitchell last night said that “people benefiting from pensions paid out of the public purse should not be re-employed while there is widescale unemployment of many well-qualified individuals”.