I move before Section 4 to insert a new section as follows:—
Where the widow of a person who held a qualifying office does not qualify for a pension under the Acts, owing to the insufficiency of that person's pensionable service, she shall be entitled to receive a widow's pension of the same amount as if that person's pensionable service had been three years.
I think I should say at the beginning that I have considered the cases which were mentioned by Deputy Costello and Deputy Seán Collins on the occasion of the Second Reading of the Bill. I think I have found it possible to provide for one of the cases mentioned by Deputy Costello and I am introducing an amendment to insert a new section in the Bill in lieu of Section 4. This new section will provide a pension for the widow — I want to emphasise it is for the widow — of an ex-Minister or an ex-Parliamentary Secretary whose pensionable service may have been insufficient to qualify his widow for a pension. That will cover not only the specific case mentioned by Deputy Costello but a number of other cases of the widows of persons who held office, perhaps, in the early days of this State whom I overlooked.
I could not see how I could bring it into the Bill until Deputy Costello set my mind working again. We, and all Deputies have reason to be grateful to Deputy Costello for drawing this particular matter to my attention. The section, of course, applies not merely to those who held office in the earlier days but to those who held office subsequently. I think the House as a whole will agree that it is not right that, if a person has held ministerial office or the office of Parliamentary Secretary, his widow should be reduced to complete penury if he should die leaving her unprovided for. The State owes that obligation to the widow of a person who has undertaken the responsibilities of ministerial office or the office of Parliamentary Secretary, and the new section which I am introducing and which will involve the deletion of Section 4, will make that provision.
I have also considered with the utmost sympathy the case raised by Deputy Seán Collins, but I find it would not be possible to provide any ex gratia payment in the one case which could be covered, without doing grave violation to one of the fundamental principles of the Bill, which is that, if a person has secured alternative employment or receives remuneration from State funds by reason of such employment, the pension would be, proportionately abated. The lady concerned in this case has been so employed, largely because we all of us, on both sides, recognised that there was a responsibility, that there had been an oversight and even if the difficulty had not arisen about granting her a formal pension, the pension would not have been payable so long as she held that employment, so that I think the case has been fully covered by the action the Government have already taken.
