asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health if he can state why the pensions voted by the Navan Rural Council to Sub-Sanitary Officers Owens and Hoey, who have served for a period of thirty-two years and twenty years respectively, have not been paid; whether the recommendations made by that body have been referred back by his Department; and whether he can now state how the matter stands.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - PENSIONS OF RURAL COUNCIL EMPLOYEES.
I was unable to consent to the superannuation allowances proposed because of excess calculation of war bonus in both instances, and an excess addition of years in one. The Council was notified of the arrangements which, under recognised practice, I would be prepared to accept, but subsequently they claimed that they were justified in their method of computing war bonus by a judicial decision in another case. They were informed on the 15th instant that if the principles of that judgment were held to apply to the cases of local officers, the bonus would have to be treated as a proportionate addition determined by, and varying with, the standard cost of living scale, and the result would be less favourable than the method of calculation suggested by me.