Yes. They are all in the nature of token Votes for the sum of £10. Vote 16 deals with Superannnuation and Retired Allowances, Vote 46 deals with Primary Education, being a Supplementary Estimate for a total of £10; Vote 61 deals with certain Civil Servants in the Department of Posts and Telegraphs and in relation to it also there is a supplementary total vote of £10; and, lastly, there is the Army Pensions Vote, also for a sum of £10.
The purpose of this Supplementary Estimate is to enable payment to be made in advance of the necessary legislation, in respect of increases in pensions to certain retired civil servants, members of the Garda Síochána and the Dublin Metropolitan Police, and resigned and dismissed members of the Royal Irish Constabulary. Similar Supplementary Estimates are being taken to provide for the payment of pension increases to teachers and to civil servants who were formerly employed in the Department of Posts and Telegraphs. Some of these matters I am mentioning generally will not have complete application to Vote 64, Army Pensions. There will be some details in which they may be changed. I have already introduced the First Reading of the Pensions (Increase) Bill to provide for the grant of increases of pension to the classes affected, and the Bill will be circulated during the coming recess. It would not be possible to have the necessary Bill enacted in the present session, but it is intended to commence the revision of pension payments fortwith.
The increases will be granted on the following basis:—Where the annual pension does not exceed £100, it will be increased by 50 per cent; where the annual pension exceeds £100 but does not exceed £150, it will be increased by 40 per cent., but the increase will in no case be less than £50; where the annual pension exceeds £150 and is less than £450 it will be increased by 30 per cent., but the increase will in no case be less than £60. There will be no increase that will bring the pension to more than £450 a year. No pension of £450 a year or over will be increased. The last item is to cover increases in certain pensions and allowances under the Army Pensions Acts and the Defence Forces pensions schemes.
In the case of civil servants, whose pensions include a bonus element determined by reference to the cost-of-living figure at the date of retirement, the increased pension will be subject to a maximum of the amount produced if the pension were revised by reference to a cost-of-living of 270 (i.e. the figure by reference to which Civil Service remuneration was revised in 1946). Similar appropriate maxima will also be applied to the increased pensions of other classes. These maxima are designed to ensure that no increased pension shall be greater than the amount which would be payable to a pensioner of equivalent status and service who retired after the general increase of remuneration granted in 1946.
Where emergency bonus has been included in the calculation of a pension, the part of pension related to the emergency bonus will first be deducted, and the remainder, being the pension on normal salary, will then be increased by the appropriate amount.
The increases will apply to the pensions of civil servants and Garda Siochána who retired in the normal course before the 1st July, 1940, the pensions of teachers who retired before the increase in teachers' salaries in September and October, 1946, and the pensions of the resigned and dismissed members of the Royal Irish Constabulary. The increases will be payable as from the 1st April, 1949.
Civil servants and Garda pensioners who retired during the stabilisation period, 1st July, 1940, to 31st October, 1946, have already received increases in their pensions under the Superannuation Act, 1947, and the Garda Síochána (Pensions) Act, 1947. Their pensions were increased by reference to the cost-of-living figure at the date of the pensioner's retirement up to a maximum cost-of-living figure of 270. In some cases, the increases proposed under the Bill promised in the autumn would be more favourable to the pensioner than the increased pension payable under the Superannuation Act, 1947, or the Garda Síochána (Pensions) Act, 1947. It is accordingly proposed to apply the provisions of the Bill, where more favourable, to such pensioners with effect from April, 1949, instead of the increases granted to them under the previous Acts. The conditions that no pension will be increased beyond the amount determined by reference to a cost-of-living figure of 270, and that emeregncy bonus will be deducted in calculating the pension to be increased will, of course, apply.
It is proposed to make provision in the Bill enabling the Minister for Local Government to authorise increases to pensioners of local authorities on similar terms and conditions. The total cost to the Exchequer of the pension increases now being provided is estimated at £205,000 a year, exclusive of the cost of increases in pensions paid by local authorities.
The Gardaí and Royal Irish Constabulary widows' pensions will be provided by Orders. Those Orders can be made during the recess and the payments issued. The Department of Education will start on the payments to national school teachers, and as there are considerable numbers of these, it is expected that they will be fully occupied in making these payments until the House has reassembled. If, however, it is possible for them to attend to the secondary school teachers, an amending scheme can be made to cover this. Otherwise, the secondary teachers will await the passage of legislation.
The Department of Defence will be able to make payments by Order or by schemes under the Vote that I will introduce in a moment. The only extra people likely to be covered by the legislation in the autumn are widows and children of Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries, but I do not propose to make any payment to any of these until after the legislation has been passed.
