Five teachers net over €150k each in pension payouts

Five secondary school teachers last year received lump sums of between €150,000 and €200,000 in a pensions bonanza.

Figures provided by the Department of Education in response to a Freedom of Information request show one retired teacher received a lump sum of €165,974.

The tax-free sum was the top amount paid out to a retiring teacher in the primary and post-primary sector last year — the highest amount received by a primary school teacher was €143,672.

The exodus of primary and secondary school teachers from the public service in 2012, when total lump sums came to €172.36m, slowed last year to €79.3m — a drop of 54%.

Primary teachers got payments totalling €43.97m compared to €97.6m in 2012, with their secondary school counterparts receiving €35.33m compared to €74.73m the previous year.

Retiring teachers and principals are entitled to 1.5 times their salary in a tax-free lump sum: 121 retiring secondary teachers got between €100,000 and €150,000 last year, with 216 receiving between €50,000 and €100,000.

In the primary sector, 175 teachers got between €100,000 and €150,000, with 250 receiving €50,000-€100,000.

The top 20 in the secondary sector shared €2.923m, with the top 20 primary teachers receiving an aggregate €2.66m.

The lump sum payments are dwarfed by pension payments to retired teachers that keep on mounting.

In 2012, pension payments — excluding lump sum payments — totalling €398.8m were made to 13,400 retired primary school teachers. This rose to €414.9m for 13,710 retired teachers last year.

In the post-primary sector, pension payments — excluding lump sums — of €285.86m were made to 9,719 teachers in 2012, increasing to €298.8m for 10,005 retired teachers last year.

Isme chief executive Mark Fielding, said the lump sum payments “are another example of Ireland’s real golden circle”.

He said: “Private sector employees can only stand and wonder at the riches in the parallel universe that is the public sector.

“Owners of SMEs, struggling to cut costs and create jobs, are horrified by the comparisons being cited on wages, perks, and entitlements of public servants. At the starting scales we compete with an over-generous welfare system and at middle and top end we compete with public sector affluence.

“No wonder ordinary people talk about a time when public servants served the public and the government, rather than the government allowing them to become self-serving.

Irish National Teachers Organisation president Sean McMahon dismissed the claim that teachers are part of a public sector golden circle.

“Teachers are ordinary members of society who have suffered quite a lot with the demise of the Celtic Tiger,” he said.

The group’s national executive member, Pat Crowe, said the terms of public pensions have gradually got worse over the last number of years, “while private sector pensions have been absolutely gutted”.