There is one matter of principle in this scheme and that is that no pension will be increased beyond £450. I think that is a general Government principle which will come up on another Bill in the course of the next few days. I take it we can say nothing about it in so far as it is within the scheme because the Minister is bound by general Government considerations.
There is one case to which I want specially to draw the attention of the Minister, namely, the case of these men for whom we made strong appeal to the Minister in this House over a long period. These are the soldiers who were encouraged to take their discharge before the increased pension became payable. The Minister has availed of this opportunity to make their increases effective as on the 1st April, 1949. I hope I am correct in that but those particular soldiers feel that there is due to them, as a measure of justice, approximately two years' increases in pension. I think it has been stressed to the Minister by the representatives of the soldiers and it has been put to the Minister very frequently in this House that the pensions should be increased as from the date which should have applied to them, that is from the date of the all-round increases. I would ask the Minister to consider that again so that these people will have that source of grievance and injustice removed.
There is one other section which deals with the payment of married pensions. Under the regulations, a soldier is married, for the purpose of the Act, and the regulations, if he is in receipt of a marriage allowance at the date of his discharge. That has operated harshly in some cases. There is one particular case to which I have already drawn the Minister's attention. I asked him a question about it the other day. The Minister was not available and it was answered for him by a Parliamentary Secretary. I had in mind raising the question on the Adjournment, with the consent of the Ceann Comhairle, and perhaps I might take the opportunity of raising it now.
This particular soldier was married during his service, and his wife, not being able to find married quarters in the Curragh or in the vicinity of the Curragh, where her husband was stationed, had to leave. She went over to live with relatives in England. She received in the ordinary way her pay cheque, and, being a very honest woman, instead of doing, perhaps, what a number of people might have done, namely, endorsing it and sending it home to her husband to cash, she wrote to the Minister and asked him to make it payable to her in England. Of course, the Department of Defence investigated it and, under a section of the Defence Forces regulations, it was held that she was living apart from her husband "not in accordance with the exigencies of the service". In other words, if she had lived anywhere this side of the Irish Sea she would have been separated from her husband "in accordance with the exigencies of the service", but by going further afield it was held that she was not and she was refused her marriage allowance. So far so good.
When this soldier, after many years of very satisfactory service in the military police, retired he applied in the ordinary way for a married pension, but the Department of Defence said: "Well, under the regulations you were not in receipt of a marriage allowance at the date of discharge and, therefore, for our purposes you are not a married soldier at all and we shall not give you a married pension". I think that is inequitable and unfair and I do not think it would stand up to any consideration at all on any moral grounds. I do not think the number of people affected in that way are many, but a man who has rendered very fine service as this particular N.C.O. did in the military police, particularly seeing that the State was saved the payment of any marriage allowance to his wife during his whole service for the reasons I have stated, is at least entitled to a pension as a married man. Such a pension could have been paid under these regulations. I would press the Minister to consider the case of that individual and others similarly circumstanced so that justice—we have been talking about justice all day—may be done to the parties concerned.
