Irish blood service owes State €10.3m in pension money

The Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS)owes the State €10.3 million in pension-related deductions from staff, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General.

Seamus McCarthy said the provisions of the Financial Measures in the Public Interest (FEMPI) Act were not being complied with, as staff pension deductions were being deducted but not paid over.

The deficit in the IBTS pension scheme has more than doubled in three years to €92 million last year, Mr McCarthy told the Dáil Public Accounts Committee.

When the FEMPI Act was introduced in 2009, the IBTS queried whether it applied to employees as they were members of a private pension scheme.

It eventually accepted this was the case but linked the non-remittance of the pension levy to efforts to address the deficit in the pension scheme, Department of Health general secretary Jim Breslin told the committee.

Considerable progress in resolving the dispute has been made in recent months, he said.

Following involvement of the Workplace Relations Commission, a proposal has been made to resolve the issue, which is being considered by staff.

The Department has taken over responsibility for the health vote since the start of this year. Asked by Fine Gael TD Áine Collins how many accounts the Department employed for this work, he said there were four.

Ms Collins expressed doubt that just four accountants could oversee a €12 billion annual budget.