I move:—
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £10 be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending 31st March, 1946, for Wound and Disability Pensions, Further Pensions and Married Pensions, Allowances and Gratuities (No. 26 of 1923, No. 12 of 1927, No. 24 of 1932, No. 15 of 1937, No. 2 of 1941 and No. 14 of 1943); Military Service Pensions, Allowances and Gratuities (No. 48 of 1924, No. 26 of 1932, No. 43 of 1934, No. 33 of 1938, No. 5 of 1944, and Nos. 11 and 34 of 1945); Pensions, Allowances and Gratuities (No. 37 of 1936); Payments in respect of Compensation for Members of the Local Defence Force and the Voluntary. Aid Divisions of the Irish Red Cross Society (No. 28 of 1939); and for sundry Contributions and Expenses in respect thereof, etc.
This Estimate for the token sum of £10 is necessary to regularise (1) the financial provisions of the Military Service Pensions Act, 1945; and (2) a payment which has been made for personal injuries to a member of the Voluntary Aid Division of the Irish Red Cross under an Emergency Powers Order which was not included in the ambit of the annual Army Estimate.
Deputies will remember that by the Military Service Pensions Act of 1945, the Oireachtas authorised either the abolition or the relaxation of abatement hitherto made in respect of remuneration and allowances paid to military service pensioners from central or local funds. That change in the scales of abatement will cost the Exchequer during the present year about £25,000. Within the sub-head, however, there are technical savings of about £9,000, because although the number of pensions granted has been forecast with accuracy, the rate of pensions has been over-estimated. Hence under sub-head I, there is required an additional sum of £16,000.
The other payment which it is necessary to regularise is that made during the year to a member of the Voluntary Aid Division of the Irish Red Cross. The compensation paid was not included in the annual Estimate and it is, therefore, necessary to vote the amount of the payment (£17) under sub-head P.
But for the two payments just outlined, this Estimate would not have been necessary, because there is sufficient money available in the Vote to meet all commitments up to the end of March. In accordance, however, with the usual rules and practice, it is necessary in an Estimate of this nature to show large excesses of expenditure where they occur on other sub-heads of the Vote.
The first excess (£5,095) is on sub-head C, which provides for the salaries, wages and allowances of the Referee and Advisory Committee. The original Estimate for £822 provided for the employment of the Referee for six weeks, with a small staff for three months, but actually both the Referee and his staff have been fully employed throughout the whole of the year.
Another excess anticipated is £18,000 under sub-head J for claims under the Defence Forces (Pensions) Schemes which deal with the pensions, allowances and gratuities of officers and other ranks serving in the Army. The excess is entirely due to the demobilisation of the Army. Here I must point out that an emergency gratuity out of the Army Vote under Defence Force Regulations is payable to all men with a minimum of 360 days' service and that, in addition, a statutory gratuity under the Defence Forces (Pensions) Scheme is also payable to every N.C.O. or man who has rendered three years' service. When the Estimate for 1945-46 was being framed there was no sign that hostilities in Europe would cease, and consequently sufficient money was not provided for those statutory short service gratuities.
The £3,000 excess in sub-head K for the expenses of applicants and witnesses attending for examination is due partly to the activities of the Referee with the Advisory Committee and partly to the large number of applicants under examination for wound and disability pensions before the Army Pensions Board at St. Bricin's Hospital.
The total of the excesses on the five sub-heads is £42,112, but as there is sufficient savings on the other sub-heads to meet that sum, I am only asking the Dáil to vote the token sum of £10.
