First of all, I should like to thank the House for the manner in which they have received this Bill. I should like also to thank the various deputations which I have met for the helpful advice they gave me before the various stages of the Bill reached the House. When I say deputations, I mean deputations including members of all sides of the House.
I hope, like other Deputies, that the Local Government (Superannuation) Bill, 1955, will not be the last Bill introduced in the House to give superannuation to employees of local authorities but it is, as Deputy Casey pointed out, a step forward. Let us remember that, since the inception of the State down to 1948, no effort was made to give superannuation to servants of local authorities. In 1925, shortly after the State was established, a Bill was passed through this House to give superannuation to officers of local authorities, but, from the passing of that Bill until 1948, no effort whatsoever was made to do anything for the servants. This Bill has been introduced to remedy some of the faults in the 1948 Act.
Some Deputies mentioned that we did not follow the pattern of the British system of superannuation in local authorities. Let me remind the House that, so far as the servants and officers of local authorities in Britain are concerned, only wholetime servants are superannuated. Unfortunately, in this country we cannot give wholetime employment to all the servants of local authorities but we go a good way towards making up for that when we provide for these 200 service days. If they have 200 service days in the year, they become automatically entitled to superannuation.
We are on the Final Stage of the Bill and I understand that we can discuss only what is in the Bill and not what is omitted from it but most of the speeches here this evening were addressed to omissions from the Bill, not to its contents, and it is but right that I should refer to them now in reply. Right through the entire discussion of this Bill and through the deputations which I have met, the principal points which were advanced were, first of all, that the contributions were too high; secondly, in certain cases that there be no contributions; and, thirdly, that years should be added to an officer's service in order to enable him to draw full superannuation. Has anyone thought of the impact on the taxpayers and ratepayers? No person seems to have thought of that. We did try to meet it in the case of Cork, where we must refund some rightful dues to the servants of the corporation. We tried to cushion the ratepayers of Cork against the impact of that £23,000 or £24,000 that must be repaid to the servants concerned. That is being done because of representations received from all sides of the House. I decided to leave it to themselves in Cork as to how they would refund the money.
We must think of the taxpayers and the ratepayers and it may be possible to review the Bill in a few years' time.
Deputies Casey and Desmond made reference to the fact that it is optional for the local authorities as to whether or not they will adopt a scheme of superannuation. I am very glad indeed that it is optional. I am proud of the fact that we are leaving to the authorities their own decision in this matter. After all, for far too long and for far too many years have we been dictators to local authorities in matters of local government, and it is only right we should leave it to them to decide whether or not they will adopt a scheme of superannuation. It is much better to leave it to the local authorities to say whether or not they can afford or wish to implement the Act. Of course, I sincerely hope every local authority will adopt a scheme and, if compulsion is necessary, and I hope it never will be, it may be possible to review the matter at a future date.
I do not think I should let the occasion pass without again paying tribute to my Parliamentary Secretary, Deputy Davin, for the amount of work he put into the preliminary stages of the Bill. I am only sorry he is not in the House to see the Bill reach its Final Stage. I also owe thanks to the House for the manner in which the Bill was received. I wish to thank the various Deputies who came on deputations and gave me every assistance in the preparation of the Bill and for its expeditious passage through the House. If I could not meet them on every point, I hope I expressed myself in very simple language that they would understand.