I move:—
That the Defence Forces (Pensions) (Amendment) Scheme, 1956, prepared by the Minister for Defence, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, under Sections 2, 3 and 5 of the Defence Forces (Pensions) Act, 1932, and Section 4 of the Defence Forces (Pensions) (Amendment) Act, 1938, and laid before the House on the 6th day of March, 1956, be confirmed.
The Defence Forces (Pensions) Acts, 1932 to 1949, authorise me as Minister for Defence, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, to prepare a scheme to provide retired pay, service pensions and gratuities for former members of the Permanent Defence Force and of the chaplaincy service. Section 4 of the 1932 Act provides that any such scheme shall not come into force unless and until it has been laid before each House of the Oireachtas and has been duly confirmed by a resolution of each House.
The first scheme—the principal scheme as it is called—became effective in 1937 and it was amended by subsequent schemes in 1940, 1947, 1949 and 1953. The main purpose of the scheme now before the House for approval is to grant increases in the retired pay of officers, the pensions of N.C.O.s and men and the gratuities payable to or in respect of both classes. These increases will apply to personnel who were serving when the last two increases in service pay took effect, that is, on the 1st November, 1952, and the 1st November, 1955.
Specific provision by way of an amendment to the existing pensions schemes is necessary in the case of officers and men because their retired pay and pensions are not expressly related to their pay as is the case in many other codes and indeed in these schemes in relation to chaplains and nurses. Consequently the retired pay or pensions of officers and men do not automatically follow any changes in their pay and express provision must be made for pension increases in order to reflect pay increases. That is why the scheme provides two sets of increases—one for those officers and men who were serving and who got the benefit of the pay increases which became effective as from 1st November, 1952—the other for those who were serving and who got the benefit of the further pay increases recently authorised and which became effective as from 1st November, 1955.
The explanatory memorandum which has been circulated with the scheme has, I hope, proved helpful to Deputies and if what I have to say now leaves any points unanswered I shall be pleased to try and make good the deficiency when I come to reply.
Article 4 of the scheme provides for new percentage increases by rank on the retired pay of officers who retired or were retired since 1st November, 1952, and before 2nd November, 1955, and further increases for those whose retirements took effect on or after the 2nd November, 1955. These percentages reflect the percentage increases in pay by rank since 1937, the year the principal scheme came into being.
Article 5 applies the same percentage increases to the gratuities payable to married officers who on retirement qualify for a grant of retired pay. In regard to the increases in retired pay, the married captain is in a singular position. In respect of each date, the percentage increase strictly appropriate in his case is lower than the corresponding percentage increase for a single captain. In order, however, to avoid the anomaly of giving the married captain less by way of retired pay than the single captain, Article 4, which deals with the retired pay increases, gives the married captain the benefit of the higher percentage increase appropriate to his unmarried colleague. In Article 5, however, which deals with the married officer's gratuity, which is not, of course, payable to an unmarried officer, the percentage increase applied represents the actual percentage increase in the pay of a married captain. The increase in the gratuity payable to or in respect of a married officer with the rank of lieutenant-general is provided for separately in Article 6. The percentage increase provided for in this case is much less than that for other officer ranks because the basic gratuity for a lieutenant-general which was first provided in the 1953 scheme is an inclusive figure fixed in relation to the January 1951 pay level. The percentage increase now provided for reflects the corresponding pay increase as from November, 1955. As there has been no retirement of a lieutenant-general since the 1953 Pensions Scheme became effective, it is not necessary to go back farther in this case than the most recent pay increase.
Article 7 provides for increased short service gratuities for dental officers who have held temporary commissions. These increases have been found necessary as an inducement to dentists to come into the Army on short-term commissions.
Article 8 guards against an anomaly possible under the scheme but which has not occurred in practice to date. The anomaly is that at certain stages of service a retiring commandant would be better off, in so far as retired pay is concerned, if his retiring rank were that of captain and not that of commandant. Article 8 provides that if such a case should arise, the higher pension based on the retiring rank of captain would be payable.
Article 9 deals with a group of soldiers who served in the Survey Company of the Corps of Engineers but who were transferred to the Reserve in 1940 in order to take up appointments as civilians in the Ordnance Survey. This was part of a general scheme to get Ordnance Survey work established on a civilian basis. The soldiers concerned were all long service men who had not got the minimum period of 21 years' Army service necessary in order to qualify for pensions under the Defence Forces Pensions Scheme. Article 9 now waives the requirement in their case of the minimum of 21 years' service for pension and renders them eligible for pensions based on their actual Army service. The pensions will not, however, be payable until the persons concerned will have retired from their civil posts in circumstances entitling them to awards under the Superannuation Acts.
Article 10 provides that a person to whom a pension is awarded in future under Article 19 of the principal scheme will be subject to the provisions which apply at present regarding the cessation or reduction of retired pay of a retired officer who takes up an appointment remunerated out of public moneys. The Article 19 to which I have referred provides pensions for officers who leave the Army without the requisite service to render them eligible for retired pay and who take up pensionable posts in the Civil Service or Garda Síochána and who retire from such posts in circumstances entitling them to awards under the superannuation codes governing the Civil Service or Garda Síochána.
Article 11 arises from a change in the Defence Force Regulations governing the pay of officers whereby an officer after a certain period of sick leave is placed on a reduced rate of pay instead of, as formerly, being placed under stoppage of pay. The existing provisions of the scheme refer to stoppage of pay, hence the necessity for this Article. I might explain that the position under this Article is that if, through retirement or death, a gratuity based on pay at date of retirement or death, becomes payable to or in respect of an officer, the rate of pay taken is that which the officer would have been eligible for had he not been placed on the reduced rate. That is to say, the gratuity is calculated at a higher rate than if the reduced rate of pay was taken. The opportunity is also being taken to apply the same principle to a gratuity which might become payable to relatives of officers under Article 20 of the amending scheme of 1949.
Article 12 is a drafting amendment necessary in order to make clear that certain conditions which apply by virtue of Article 16 of the Amending Scheme of 1953 to a pension or gratuity payable to the widow or children of an officer who retired voluntarily apply also in respect of an officer who was compulsorily retired.
Article 13 provides for increased rates of pension, including married pension, for non-commissioned officers and men discharged on or after 1st November, 1952, and before 1st November, 1955, and further increases for those discharged on or after the latter date. These increases arise as a result of the pay increases granted as from the 1st November, 1952, and the 1st November, 1955, and reflect the percentage by which the rates of pay applicable as from these dates exceed the rates applicable as from September, 1946.
The Article also amends the provisions governing married pensions so that a widower soldier who remarried before his discharge will not, in certain circumstances, be deprived of a married pension by reason of his remarriage. This amendment is a technical one necessary to remove an anomaly in the existing provisions which came to light in a particular case. It is retrospective to 7th February, 1950, to deal with the case in question.
Article 14 provides for corresponding increases in the rates of gratuities payable to non-commissioned officers and privates who are discharged or transferred to the Reserve, on or after the dates mentioned, in circumstances not entitling them to pensions.
Article 15 relates to the existing provisions of Article 38 of the scheme which, as amended by Article 20 of the 1953 scheme, apply where an officer or soldier is entitled to a disablement pension under the Army Pensions Acts in addition to a service pension under the schemes. The provision, broadly, is that no reduction is effected at all if the sum of both pensions does not exceed £150 a year. If they do exceed that figure, then, subject to the maintenance of the minimum of £ 150, the greater of the two plus one half the other is payable. In the calculation in this respect, however, the legal position is that the married pension payable under the scheme to a soldier may not be taken into account, with the result that in some cases full married pensions under the Army Pensions Acts and under the schemes may be payable concurrently. This anomalous position arises not by design and this amending Article will put matters on a logical basis by including the married pension payable under the scheme in the calculations. The change will, however, apply only to soldiers discharged on or after the commencing date of this scheme so that the position of anyone who benefits under the present arrangement will not be affected.
Article 16 is a technical amendment to remove a doubt in the interpretation of Article 20, sub-article (4), of the 1949 scheme by making it clear that a gratuity referred to in a particular context in that sub-paragraph does not mean a married officer's gratuity. If the contrary were the case, it would be to the detriment of a beneficiary under the Article.
Article 17 which substitutes a new sub-article (5) for the existing sub-article (5) in Article 20 of the amending scheme of 1949, arises from a flaw in the existing sub-article which, it has been found, does not provide for the payment of a gratuity to a widow or children of a deceased officer who dies in certain circumstances. The new sub-article makes good this deficiency.
Article 18 amends Article 4 of the 1953 scheme which provided increases in retired pay for officers. These increases varied according to rank and as to whether the officer was married or single. In the case of officers retiring from 1951 onwards, the increases reflected the percentage increases in the pay of married and single officers by rank between 1937 and 1951. The percentage increase for a married captain so reached was 58 per cent., whereas that for a single captain was 59 per cent. This, I feel, was anomalous and the amendment contained in Article 18 will apply the 59 per cent. increase to the married captain. This will be retrospective to the date from which these percentages first applied, namely, the 16th January, 1951.
Article 19 is a drafting amendment which provides that certain conditions governing the payment of married officers' gratuities, which apply to officers who retire voluntarily also apply to officers who are compulsorily retired.
The last Article—Article 20—is also a drafting one to bring soldiers who were transferred to the Reserve within the provisions of Article 19 of the 1953 scheme, which provided increased gratuities for discharged soldiers. This amendment is retrospective to the date of operation of Article 19 of the 1953 scheme, namely, 1st September, 1949.
The foregoing concludes what I have to say in explanation of the terms of this scheme. As I have said earlier, if any Deputy requires elucidation of any other points I shall do my best when concluding to furnish the answers.
