asked the Minister for Finance if he will state (a) the annual amount paid in pensions to retired civil servants and other retired State employees; (b) the date on which the rates payable in respect of such pensions were determined; (c) the rise in the cost of living which it is estimated will occur from that date to the 5th July, 1952, and (d) the estimated annual amount required to compensate recipients of State pensions for such increases in the cost of living.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Civil Servant Pensioners.
The estimated annual amounts payable in pensions this year to retired civil servants and other retired State employees are set out in the Estimates for the Public Services, Votes 16, 54 and 57. The rates at which such pensions are assessed are prescribed by the Superannuation Acts, 1834 to 1947; the Garda Síochána Pensions Orders, 1925 to 1951; the Dublin Metropolitan Police Pensions Orders, 1922 and 1924; the Royal Irish Constabulary (Resigned and Dismissed) Pensions Orders, 1924 and 1929; the Defence Forces (Pensions) Schemes, 1937 to 1949, and the Pensions (Increase) Act, 1950. These rates were determined at the dates of those enactments, which are various, and the rest of the Deputy's question does not, accordingly, admit of an answer.
I wonder would the Minister and his colleagues consider it a reasonable demand on the part of a Deputy to ask that information, which is to be had from so many and varied source documents, should on occasion and on request be collated for a Deputy's convenience? Whilst it is true that there may be 17 or 18 different Orders and Schedules to which reference can be made, it is beyond the resources of any individual Deputy to collate the material in all these various documents. If the material is collated in each of the Departments would the Minister consider making it available in that convenient form to a Deputy who so requests it?
It has always been the policy of the Minister for Finance to give as much information as is possible in the most convenient form but, where documents or statistics are published already, it is serving a Deputy and the Dail better that they should be told where to get that information rather than have it read out in a very long answer. To recite all these Orders and Acts by way of reply to a parliamentary question would require a very long time. I think the Minister in this case has given an answer that will enable the Deputy to look up the documents very quickly in the library.
I can see readily that all the material information is given, but I think the Minister will agree that to collate all that information would be a very heavy task for any Deputy. I do not suggest that the Minister be asked to read out all the material, but if the Ceann Comhairle's permission were granted, I suggest that the material so collated might be printed in the Official Report for the convenience of the Deputy asking the question. I should be grateful if the Minister would give the matter his consideration.
It is very difficult on occasion to make a synopsis of very intricate Orders and Acts.
The Minister will agree that it is much more difficult for the individual Deputy.
Mr. O'Higgins
Might I ask the Minister whether he has any information in relation to queries (c) and (d) in the question?
I have said that "these rates were determined at the dates of those enactments, which are various, and the rest of the Deputy's question does not accordingly admit of an answer".
Mr. O'Higgins
Surely the Minister for Finance can answer the query whether the Minister can estimate the rise in the cost of living from the date on which the rates became applicable to the 5th July and the amount that is now necessary to compensate recipients in relation to whatever rise has taken place in the cost of living. Surely that is not beyond the capacity of the Minister to answer.
I think the Deputy had better study the reply, and if he wants further information——
Mr. O'Higgins
The question was put down to the Minister when he was asked to state what rise has taken place in the cost of living between the date on which the rates became applicable and now?
I think the Deputy had better study the answer.
The answer does not contain the reply.