I have already indicated to the House, many times in fact, that I regard the superannuation provisions in this Bill as being exceptionally generous. I have suggested to the House that there is not any superannuation code applying either to officers of local authorities or to officers of the central authority with equally advantageous conditions from the point of view of the officers and servants affected. Notwithstanding repetition of that, notwithstanding demonstration of it by example, the same old arguments are trotted out on every amendment—could you not be a little more generous in this respect and in that respect? I can only say that the financial structure of this superannuation code has been very carefully worked out. I have been as generous in that code as it is possible to be and there are some very minor amendments which I have already conceded. Consequently, however anxious Deputies may be to exact still better terms, I have to say to the House that I have nothing further to concede.
Deputy Burke's series of amendments under the heading of one amendment are, in fact, contrary to principles that have already been established in relation to the Bill. Sub-section (2) of Deputy Burke's amendment is as follows:—
"For the purposes of this Part of this Act all registered officers and servants of a mental hospital authority who have completed 30 years of service shall be entitled to resign."
The House has already agreed, and it is incorporated in the Bill, that they must have reached the age of 55 years before they can retire. They enter the service of the mental hospital authority between the ages of 18 and 26. Let us take 20 years of age. After 30 years' service the average attendant in the mental hospital service would be entitled, if this amendment were accepted, to retire at the age of 50. We dealt with that principle already and it was decided by the House, and it is not proposed to permit these attendants to retire at the age of 50. Let me again point out that in all this matter we are discussing, not attendants whose health has broken down in the service, not attendants or nurses who are mentally or physically incapacitated, but attendants and nurses who are deemed to be in full physical and mental health. If they are unfit physically or mentally for the full discharge of their duty, the superannuation code already incorporated in the Bill makes ample provision for retirement and for the addition of years, if necessary.
I cannot understand why all this pressure should be put upon me in relation to the retirement of able-bodied men at 50 years of age or before 50 years of age. I do not think it is a principle that should be forced upon the Government or, in fact, I do not think it is a sound principle at all. I do not see any reason why a man or woman who is physically and mentally fit and in enjoyment of a sheltered post should not continue in the public service until he or she is at least 55 years of age.
Under sub-section (3) of Deputy Burke's amendment, an unregistered officer, a clerk, in the employment of a mental hospital authority, could retire, if he entered the service at 18, at the age of 58. That principle has never been conceded by the House to any class of officers of a local authority. I do not think the principle is likely to be conceded, but, at any rate, it is contrary to the sections of the Bill that have already been accepted by the House. One gets tired going over this ground over and over again. It seems to me that I might as well be talking to myself, in my room. Deputies, apparently, have a certain attitude to maintain here. Certain speeches must be made, apparently, and we are going over the same ground over and over again. If I have said once, I have said half a dozen times to-day, when Deputies suggest that hardships would actually be inflicted on mental hospital attendants under the superannuation code in this Bill, as compared with the provisions of the 1909 Act—and apparently I must say it again before it will sink in—that the officers and servants who are themselves immediately concerned, want the terms of the Bill in preference to the terms of the 1909 Act.