I move:—
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Go ndeontar suim ná raghaidh thar £1,168,827 chun slánuithe na suime is gá chun íoctha an Mhuirir a thiocfidh chun bheith iníoctha i rith na bliana dar críoch an 31adh lá de Mhárta, 1926, chun Aoisliúntaisí, Cúiteamh, Liúntaisí agus Aisci Truagha agus Breise fé Reachtanna iolardha; Cúiteamh fé Airtiogal 10 de Chonnra an 6adh Mi na Nodlag, 1921; Liúntaisí Truagha, Aiscí agus Pinsin Bhreise a deonadh ag an Roinn Airgid; Tuarastal an Dochtúra Réitigh; agus íocaíochtanna iolardha i dtaobh Pinsean a iocann an Rialtas Briotáineach fé láthair. |
That a sum not exceeding £1,168,827 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1926, for Superannuation, Compensation, Compassionate and Additional Allowances and Gratuities under sundry Statutes Compensation under Article 10 of the Treaty of the 6th December, 1921; Compassionate Allowances, Gratuities and Supplementary Pensions awarded by the Department of Finance, the salary of the Medical Referee; and sundry repayments in respect of pensions at present paid by the British Government. |
This Vote covers the payment of ordinary pensions under the Superannuation Act, of civil servants in all departments of the State except the Post Office, the charge for which is shown in sub-head (n) of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs. This Vote includes further charges for the pensions of the police force amalgamated to the Gárda Síochána. In previous years the pensions of the Dublin Metropolitan Police were borne on the Vote for that force. The pensions of National Teachers are borne on the Teachers' Pensions Fund, towards which grants-in-aid amounting to £56,737 are made under sub-head (d) of the Vote for Primary Education, No. 42. Judicial pensions amounting to £43,233 are borne, as shown on the foot of the Estimate, on the Central Fund. The total sum involved for superannuation charges in respect of these services amounts to £2,069,797.
Under sub-heads (a), (b), (c), (d) of this Vote provision is made for the payment of pensions, allowances, and gratuities payable to Civil Servants who have retired from the various Departments, except the Post Office, on or after the 1st April, 1922. Sub-heads (a) and (b) show the provision made for pensions, additional allowances and gratuities payable to civil servants who shall have retired for the end of the present financial year, in the normal course under the existing Superannuation Acts. Sub-heads (c) and (d) show the provision made to cover expenditure likely to arise in connection with the compensation payable to persons who retire from the Service—except the Post Office—under Article X. of the Treaty.
The figures up to the 27th of last month show that 795 persons have retired from the service of the State in consequence of the change of government. Of course that includes discharged cases as well as people who retired and took the Treaty terms. There were 325 retirement cases. The discharged cases amounted to 470 altogether, and were made up as follows:— Resident magistrates, 36; petty sessions clerks, 305; crown solicitors, 23; Marlborough Street Training College (which was closed), 53; various Local Government officials, including commissioners, inspectors, auditors, pharmacists, 12; a permanent member of the Congested Districts Board and a solicitor, 2; one under-secretary, who was performing no functions after the setting-up of the Saorstát; one metropolitan magistrate; some fourteen messengers and cleaners in the Supreme Court, and some twenty-three other miscellaneous officers.
From time to time there has been a great deal of discussion in regard to these discharges, and it has been suggested that a policy of wholesale discharges was being pursued merely with the object of providing places for other people.
I think Deputies will realise that at the time we set up the district courts, when we had simply the Army in some parts of the country, when we had no police forces, but were beginning to send out the Civic Guard, it would have been impossible to pursue any other course in regard to the resident magistrates and the petty sessions clerks. If we had endeavoured to carry on with the resident magistrates it would certainly have been impossible for the district courts to function. If we had carried on even with the petty sessions clerks, the possibility of the Civic Guards being able to do their duty under the courts and for the courts to carry on their work would be greatly lessened. Of the 470 people whom we discharged, 341 were resident magistrates and petty sessions clerks. The Crown solicitors were also involved, as it was simply a question of getting confidence in the new courts, and getting them established and to work. It was just as necessary that a new body of State solicitors should be set up as that a new body of district justices should be appointed. Altogether some 364 of the 470 discharges were discharged in connection with the courts. There were others that I have referred to who were redundant, the messengers and cleaners, and one metropolitan magistrate. The discharges in connection with the courts amounted to about 100 people, and 53 discharges arose through the closing of Marlborough Street Training College, which became unnecessary under the new circumstances. I think these figures amply demonstrate that there was no such thing as a process of dismissals for the purpose of providing positions into which favoured people might be put. This is a matter that has been dealt with on other occasions, but like all false rumours and charges, when once started it is very difficult to overtake and kill. It is probably no harm to refer to it again.
The figure in connection with the Post Office corresponding to the total of 795 is 658. I think that there were practically no discharges in the Post Office. The big majority, if not all, were people who retired to take advantage of the Treaty. I think they were all men. Under sub-head (j), provision is made for the continuance of pensions that have already been granted to 455 resigned and dismissed R.I.C., and for the grant of pensions to a certain number of other cases which are still under consideration. The cases still under consideration include, roughly, eighty-five resigned and dismissed members of the R.I.C. who are at present in full-time employment in the Gárda Síochána. Naturally their pensions, except to a small extent, will not become payable during their period of employment in the Gárda Síochána. A certain proportion of the pensions will be paid to bring them up to the amounts that they would have had if they had had their R.I.C. service added to their Gárda Síochána service, and had reached the point on the scale to which that combined service would have brought them. However, that is only a small part of the pension that would have been payable in a great many cases. There are certain other cases of resigned and dismissed R.I.C. still under consideration. Under sub-head (k) a sum of £100 has been inserted. That is really a token figure. The only charge at present borne is one annual allowance granted under Section 4 of the Superannuation and Pensions Act, 1923. As I have already indicated, on the amalgamation of the D.M.P. and the Gárda Síochána, opportunity was taken to amalgamate the pension charges for both these forces under sub-heads (I) and (II) of the Estimate. A pensions order was framed in the past year, providing for the superannuation of members of the Gárda Síochána, but naturally the bulk of the provision taken under these two sub-heads (I) and (II) is in respect of members of the former D.M.P. force. The latest figures we have show that up to the present 568 members of the late D.M.P. force have received awards of pensions under Article X of the Treaty. They include one Chief Commissioner and one Assistant Commissioner who were discharged. The remainder were inspectors, station sergeants, sergeants and constables, who retired in consequence of the change of Government. The retirements were eleven inspectors, twenty-six station sergeants, ninety-five sergeants, and 434 constables. Sub-head (m) represents the payment under the liability that was undertaken in the Treaty. It has been arranged that the Saorstát liability in respect of the ordinary and disbandment pensions of the R.I.C., excluding persons recruited in Great Britain during the two years preceding the Treaty, that is the Black-and-Tans for whom we have no responsibility, is on the assumption that seventy-five per cent. relate to Saorstát Eireann and the remaining twenty-five per cent. to the other part of Ireland. The present amount of these pensions and disbandment allowances is approximately £1,690,000. Seventy-five per cent. of that is £1,267,500, but that, of course, is liable to reduction by the re-employment and deaths of disbanded members, and it is estimated that one million and a quarter will suffice to cover the amount required for the current financial year.
