asked the Minister for the Civil Service whether he will introduce a regulation whereby top civil servants who retire on indexed pensions have such pensions pro tanto reduced by the amount of salary or income that they receive in addition to their pensions in the same manner as ordinary retirement pensioners.

Retired civil servants in receipt of State retirement pensions are subject to the earnings rule applicable to all pensioners. Further, any Civil Service pensioner re-employed in the Civil Service is liable to have his Civil Service pension reduced so that his total pension plus salary is related to his salary on first retirement. If he is appointed to a public board his pension may be taken into account in determining his pay from his pay from the board. I am not aware of any occupational scheme which goes further than this, and I do not believe that it would be either fair or practicable to introduce a generalised regulation of the kind suggested.