Retirees were left with total debts of more than €2.5m

ABOUT 1,000 pensioners were left with debts totalling more than €2.5m in 2001, when the Department of Agriculture and Food discovered that they had received double pension payments, from both the Early Retirement Scheme (ERS) for farmers and from the Department of Social Welfare.

Many Retirement Scheme participants were faced with large repayments, the average bill being €3,000.

Two years later there was still an outstanding debt of €2.4m.