Ireland’s largest Education and Training Board (ETB) made more than €200,000 in pension overpayments to the spouse of a deceased worker who failed to disclose a new marriage for nine years.
The Dublin and Dún Laoghaire ETB revealed the overpayment in its 2024 annual report, which noted it had entered an agreement with the recipient to recover €202,739.
The overpayment arose in 2010 after a retired ETB employee died and their spouse was awarded the pension. The person remarried in 2015 but failed to inform either the ETB or the National Shared Services Office (NSSO) of the change in their marital status until August 2024.
The NSSO, which administers pensions on behalf of the ETB, immediately discontinued the payment. The gender of the person who must make repayments was not disclosed.
The ETB has since revised and amended the pension application form for spouses, the report notes. It now includes an instruction that a spouse/civil partner must contact it in writing if their marital or civil status changes.
Dublin and Dún Laoghaire ETB is the largest of the 16 ETBs throughout Ireland, employing more than 4,600 people and supporting some 80,000 learners.
The report shows its spending increased to €313.4 million in 2024, which included €151.2 million in pay.
The report says that five data breaches were reported to the Data Protection Commissioner in 2024 – one low-risk, one medium-risk and three high-risk. No claims for compensation were paid in respect of any of the three breaches in 2024, but two individuals were compensated by the ETB’s insurers over a March 2023 breach.
The report states that two external investigations were ongoing in 2024 in relation to suspected fraud that was notified in 2022 in two bodies funded by the ETB. Both sums have been recovered.
“However per capita payments linked to one of the cases is likely to result in additional monies being repaid to Dublin and Dún Laoghaire ETB. Garda investigations are ongoing in both cases,” the report notes.
The report says that 256 staff members were paid arrears ranging from €40 to €9,106 in 2024, a total of €336,690.