asked the Minister for Justice if he will amend article 8 of the Garda Síochána Pensions Order, 1925, by deleting the words "or awarded or paid otherwise", so as to ensure that damages recovered for loss of husband and father by families of Gardaí killed accidentally will not be considered in determining rates of Garda widows and orphans' pensions.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Garda Síochána Pensions Order.
I find that the proposal to amend the Order in the manner suggested in the question was made through the appropriate channel, that is, through the Garda Síochána Representative Body many years ago. It was rejected by the then Minister for Justice. I think that this decision was right and I do not propose to alter it. I may, perhaps, point out that the rule does not mean that pensions are necessarily cancelled or reduced because compensation is recovered from a third party. The rule merely empowers this to be done whenever and to whatever extent may seem just in each particular case.
Is it not true that, in effect, if a Guard loses his life under circumstances which the civil courts believe entitle his widow and orphans to special compensation for his accidental death, that special compensation may be, and frequently is, taken into consideration for the purposes of reducing the pension to which the widow and orphans might otherwise be entitled from the State, with the result that the rule operates to take from the widow and orphans money awarded to them by the civil court and to absorb the money into the Exchequer? Surely that was never the intention of this House?
The State is entitled to reduce the pension but there is no compulsion in the matter.
They do it.
I doubt if the rule operates in the fashion in which Deputy Dillon says it does.
Is the Minister aware that there are widows who ordinarily would get £60 a year, in receipt of £12 a year and the reason assigned for cutting their pensions down to that level is that they have recovered damages? Does the Minister not agree with me that that means that the fruits of the widow's suit against the tort feasor are absorbed by the Treasury and she gets nothing? Surely that is not just?
I am not so aware. In my reply I indicated that there is machinery for a discretion in the Department of Justice and the Garda Síochána Representative Body to deal with these cases.
Do you think it just that a widow's damages should ever be taken by the Treasury? I do not think so. Does the Minister think so?