ONE RETIRED civil servant is receiving a gross pension of €155,000 per year, according to new figures released by the Department of Finance.
The figures show there are 10 people receiving pensions of more than €135,000 per year. Overall more than 100 are receiving pensions over €95,000 per year.
However, the figures show over 5,700 people are receiving pensions of less than €15,000.
The figures, released by the Department of Finance, relate to pensions paid by the Office of the Paymaster General to retired civil servants and former office holders such as ministers and judges.
They do not include details of pensions paid to retired staff who worked in other parts of the wider public service such as the Garda, Defence Forces, the health service or local authorities.
The department said it could not identify the person receiving the pension of €155,002.26. However, it said the individual concerned was a public servant and not a former office holder.
The figures, drawn up in response to a parliamentary question from Róisín Shortall of the Labour Party, do not include pensions paid to 4,577 surviving spouses. They also do not include pensions voluntarily surrendered, either wholly or in part.
Traditionally, increases in public service pension rates have been linked to rises awarded to serving personnel. However, when the Government cut public service pay last year, it decided pensioners would not be affected.
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan announced in the budget last December these arrangements would be reviewed and the Government would instead consider linking public service pensions to increases in the cost of living.
However, the Government subsequently dropped the implementation of proposals to change pension arrangements for public servants in an attempt to win support for the Croke Park deal on pay and reform.
A document clarifying elements of the deal, issued last May in advance of ballots held on the Croke Park deal, said the Government would not proceed with proposals to change the arrangements for awarding increases in public service pensions over the lifetime of the Croke Park agreement. This runs to 2014.
The recent report of the Comptroller and Auditor General said that the State was facing an accrued liability for occupational pensions for public servants of the order of €116 billion at the end of 2009.
The aggregate pension payments arising from the liabilities will be spread over the next 60 years or more.
These liabilities relate to pensions for staff across the entire public service including the Civil Service, education, health and local authority sectors as well as the Garda and Defence Forces.