Vol. 34 No. 18
I move:—
In page 4, lines 44 and 45, Section 1, to delete the words "Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses" and substitute the word "Corporation," and in page 5 to delete lines 16 and 17 and substitute the words "the expression ‘the Chairman' means the Chairman of the Borough Council."
This is one of the more or less verbal amendments that arise out of substituting a chairman for the Borough of Dun Laoghaire for a mayor.
I move:—
In page 5, Section 1, before line 56 to insert the words—"the word ‘office' and ‘officer' include respectively ‘employment' and ‘employee' and the word ‘salary' includes ‘wages.'"
The intention of this and other amendments standing in my name is to ensure that under this Bill the wage-earning staffs become pensionable servants of the Borough Corporation, as they are after a certain period under the Corporation of the City of Dublin, and also to ensure that the transfer of the Pembroke and Rathmines servants shall be done in such a way as to give them credit, when they come under the City Corporation, for pension purposes for the years they have served under those bodies. The Minister, in an amendment which he has circulated, goes a good part of the way to meet the purpose of this and other amendments. I notice, however, that in the case of officers he makes it possible for officers to receive pensions after ten years, whereas in the case of servants, as now defined in his amendment, it will not be possible for them to receive pensions if they have under twenty years' service. Perhaps the Minister would explain his reason for making such a distinction.
Perhaps some general comment on the different amendments put down by Deputy Davin and the amendment intended to meet them that I have circulated would make the situation clearer. Some of Deputy Davin's amendments would make explicit the transfer of servants from an abolished body to either the new borough or the City Corporation, whether directly as in the case of the borough and the servants of the Rathmines and Pembroke Urban Districts, or indirectly in the case of the County Council, the Board of Health and the present Rural District Council to the Civic Corporation.
The amendment that I propose— to put a new section before Section 15—arranged for the carry-over of every contract of service, whether expressed or implied, as between the servants of any of the abolished bodies, either to the Borough Corporation or to the City Corporation, and to that extent it meets one aspect of Deputy Davin's amendments. The amendments, putting in a new section 82, does that in respect of servants of the rural district council and the county council or the board of health to whom they are transferred, and the amendment to Section 19 makes arrangements for the carry-over of servants of the rural district council so transferred to the county council, and servants of the county council, otherwise transferred by agreement with the Minister for Local Government, to the Corporation. So that we secure in this way the carrying on of what may be called contracts as between the servants and the existing bodies. On the matter of pensions, Section 24 (1) of the Bill secures
For the purposes of any enactment empowering the City Corporation to grant to any of its employees other than officers an allowance in respect of the loss of his employment, an employee of the City Corporation who was previously employed by the county council, the board of health, a rural district council or an abolished body of which the City Corporation is the successor shall be entitled to reckon his employment by the county council, the board of health, such rural district council or such abolished body (as the case may be) as employment by the City Corporation.
By the Act of 1925 and a private Act of the Dublin Corporation, employees in Dublin City who have 20 years' service can be given pensions either on loss of office or on leaving the service. Section 48 (2) secures that the borough Corporation shall be in the same position. Twenty years are quoted there to bring the borough as regards pensions to servants into the position that obtains in the Dublin Corporation. Beyond that, I am not prepared to accept an amendment. Deputy Davin's amendment No. 17 would give servants of the present urban districts facilities in the matter of pensions or gratuities that are not enjoyed by the servants of the Dublin Corporation at present. I think that no case has been made for changing the position there. I say that the amendments which I have down meet the situation. Employees of the urban district councils with 20 years' service, who become transferred to their successors, as all employees automatically will, will be immediately secured by the terms of the Bill in their pension rights in the same way as if they were employees of the Dublin Corporation with that length of service. Therefore, I would oppose all Deputy Davin's amendments and would substitute my own.
I am prepared to admit that the Minister has gone a long way to meet what was intended by my amendments, but could we have from him his reasons, or any good reasons, as to why a member of the wage-earning staff should not be entitled to a pension until he has twenty years' service, while the officer or salaried member of the staff of the Corporation can get a pension after ten years' service?
An officer enters the service of a local body as a person entering a position which is a pensionable one. That is the normal frame of mind and the normal understanding on which an officer enters the service of a local body. A servant of a local body is a casual workman and only gradually grows into the position of an employee with any permanence. No doubt that was taken into consideration by the Dublin Corporation when it introduced its legislation dealing with the matter, and that guided the terms of the Act of 1925, in which the twenty years was repeated.
I move:—
In page 6, section 3 (3). line 29. to delete the words "Mayor. Aldermen and Burgesses" and substitute the word "Corporation."
This amendment is consequential on the change with regard to the Mayor.
I move:—
In pages 48 and 49, First Schedule, to insert in their appropriate alphabetical positions in that portion of Part I. which relates to the South Dublin Rural District the following names of townlands and of the district electoral division in which they are situate, that is to say:—
|
Name of Townland. |
District Electoral Division in which situate. |
|
Larkfield |
Terenure |
|
Stannaway |
Terenure |
and to add at the end of Part II., page 51, the following paragraph:—
That portion of the Townland of Kimmage in the District Electoral Division of Terenure and the Rural District of South Dublin bounded as follows, that is to say:—
Starting at a point on the boundary between the Townlands of Terenure and Kimmage in the District Electoral Division of Terenure, at the centre of the road 215 yards south-west of Kimmage Cross Roads, proceeding in a northerly direction along the centre of the laneway which opens to the said road at the said point for a distance of 65 yards, thence in a north-easterly direction along the centre of the said laneway for a distance of 60 yards to the centre line of the bridge over the Corporation Mill Stream, thence in an casterly and south-casterly direction along the centre line of the said Corporation Mill Stream for a distance of 520 yards to the boundary between the Townlands of Perrystown and Kimmage, in the District Electoral Division of Terenure, thence northerly, north-easterly, southerly and westerly along the said Townland boundary to the starting point.
This proposes to add the townland of Larkfield, fourteen acres, the townland of Stannaway, 162 acres. and part of Kimmage, 106 acres. I have felt, after an examination of the position in Kimmage, that the part of Kimmage that it is now proposed to take in should come in. The valuation of this part of Kimmage has increased from £330 in 1911 to £549 in 1926, and to £611 in 1930, and between 1911 and 1926 the population increased from 37 to 100. It has been very rapidly urbanised. Stannaway, too, has increased in population between 1911 and 1926, from 64 to 121, and for a long time past I have been pressed by persons controlling 150 acres out of 162 who have been pointing out the desirability of taking it in. Larkfield is only a small area between the two of them, and the population has risen from 7 in 1911 to 29 in 1926. It is just a small rectification of the boundary in the Kimmage area.
I move:—
In page 51, lines 4, 8, 12 and 14, to delete the word "Snug" and substitute the word "Edenmore" in each of the said lines.
This is to correct an error arising out of a wrong reading of the marking on a map. It is part of the townland of Edenmore that is being brought in and not the townland of Snug.
I ask the House to allow me to move the next stage to-morrow in order that the Bill may go to the Seanad with a view to its getting a Second Reading there next week.
