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Committee for Education

Teachers' Superannuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2014: Departmental Briefing

The Chairperson: I welcome back to the Committee Seamus Gallagher, the deputy head of the pensions policy team, and Brian Quinn, from the pensions policy team.  You are becoming regular contributors to the Education Committee, Seamus; you are always welcome, and it is good to see you.  Would you just make a few comments on SR 2014/70?

Mr Seamus Gallagher (Department of Education): Thank you very much, Chair.  This will take two minutes.  This is the statutory rule which came from the SL1 on which we came to the Committee and spoke very briefly on 26 February.  We covered it in a wee bit more detail on 5 February.  It implements solely the final year of member contribution increases, which are necessary because the Treasury wants to make £2·8 billion savings from pensions schemes right across the UK.  The Executive here were basically told, "If you do not make those savings in Northern Ireland, we will deduct the requisite amount from the block grant".  We believe that the contribution increases are done in as fair a way as possible to protect low-paid workers as far as possible and to minimise the number of opt-outs.

The Chairperson: Do members have any questions before we proceed?  OK, as there are no questions, I will put the Question.

Are members content that the Committee for Education has considered SR 2014/70 the Teachers' Superannuation (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2014 and there are no objections to the rule?

Members indicated assent.