I move:—
That the Defence Forces (Pensions) (Amendment) Scheme, 1957, 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 12th day of July, 1957, be confirmed.
The Defence Forces (Pensions) Schemes are made under the authority of the Defence Forces (Pensions) Acts, 1932 to 1957, and deal essentially with service pensions for members of the Army, the Army Nursing Service and the Chaplaincy Service. Section 4 of the Act of 1932 provides that no scheme shall come into force unless and until it has been laid before each House of the Oireachtas and has been confirmed by a resolution of each such House. It is in pursuance of the obligation imposed by that section that the amending scheme is now before the House for confirmation.
The scheme, as Deputies will see, is primarily devoted to granting increases in service pensions of members of the Army, the Army Nursing Service and the Chaplaincy Service, whose services terminated prior to the 1st November, 1952. An Army pay increase took effect as from that date and, in the case of anyone serving at that time who later went on pension, the benefit of that pay increase was passed on to the pension by the Defence Forces (Pensions) (Amendment) Scheme of 1956. The increases in this scheme are confined to persons who went on pension prior to November, 1952. They are being given on the same basis as the increases already provided for in the Pensions (Increase) Act of 1956, and in the Army Pensions Act, 1957, which became law in July last. The increases consist of whichever is the lesser of (a) the appropriate sum as defined in Articles 4 and 6, or (b) the amount which would be payable if the last day of service were the 1st November, 1952, and the rank and service, etc., were the same as on the actual date of discharge.
This scale is the same as that laid down in the Army Pensions Act, 1957, in relation to Army disablement pensions and in the Pensions (Increase) Act, 1956, in relation to other classes of State pensions. The commencing date of the increases is the 1st August, 1956, and they are in fact being paid since that date under the authority of a Supplementary Estimate for pensions passed in this House on the 25th July, 1956. The appropriate sum, I should mention, applies to the rate of pension payable as on the 31st July, 1956, that is, it applies to the full pension where that consists of an earlier rate as later increased.
I should mention also that up to this, a service pension which when taken alone or when aggregated with a disablement pension came to £450 or more did not participate in a cost-of-living increase, such as this is, and, moreover, in the case of a pension or aggregation of pensions so near to £450 that the grant of the appropriate increase would bring them above that figure, the increase was limited to such amount as would bring the total to £450 and no more. That restriction is being departed from now and a person with a pension or aggregation of pensions of £450 or more will get an increase of either 6 per cent. or the amount which would be payable if the date of retirement were 2nd November, 1952, and the rank and service in that rank were the same as on the date of actual discharge. Pensions to be increased, however, are taken as they existed on 31st July, 1956, so that the effect of the previous ceiling of £450 must be taken into account before the rates of increases now authorised are applied.
The increases apply as well to pensions payable to widows and children of deceased officers and the rates of increases are arrived at by the application of the appropriate sum. The increases which I have mentioned are encompassed in Articles 5, 6, 10, 13, 14, 15, 20, 21 and 22. Perhaps what I have said, taken in conjunction with the explanatory memorandum circulated with the scheme, will be sufficient for an understanding of them so I shall now turn to the general matters included in the scheme.
Articles 7, 8, 9 and 18 concern certain officers of the Naval Service who were commissioned on a temporary basis and of whom some have had service since the days of the emergency when what is now the Naval Service was called the Marine Service. In November, 1946, some of the Marine Service officers retired and were paid gratuities under the normal provisions of the schemes in respect of their service up to then. They were then immediately reappointed to commissions in the Naval Service on a temporary basis in order to maintain the officer strength of the service until such time as young officers could be recruited and trained.
Provision to pay these former Marine Service officers gratuities related to the period in which each rank was held but not tied to any specified period of service—as is the case for normal gratuities—was then made in Article 12B of the scheme. Some of these officers have had their service extended from time to time in the interests of the service and are still serving with the result that when they come to retire on age grounds or on the expiry of their present engagements they will have over 12 years' service since 1946. This is the minimum period of service required of a regular officer before he may retire on retired pay, so it has been decided, instead of giving the Naval Service officers in question a gratuity under Article 12B, to make them eligible for an award of retired pay and, if married, a married officer's gratuity in respect of their service since 1946, on the same basis as that applicable to the voluntary retirement of a regular officer. Articles 7, 9 and 18 achieve this.
Apart from these officers, there were others who were commissioned on a temporary basis subsequent to 1946 and who had not served in the Marine Service. They are not entitled to any gratuity under the present terms of Article 12B and Article 8 of the present scheme deals with the matter by bringing them within the terms of Article 12B. It is necessary to make the amendment retrospective to 28th February last in order to cover the case of an officer who retired as from that date. The articles also provides an increased rate of gratuity in respect of service in the rank of Lieutenant-Commander and rates for the first time for the ranks of Ensign and Commander.
Article 12 is a technical measure amending sub-article (6) of Article 20 of the scheme to make clear that the widow of an officer who retired on age grounds with at least 12 years' pensionable service is entitled to a pension under the article. The article has always been construed on this basis but, in order to place the matter beyond question, it is considered desirable to clarify the position by an explicit reference to retirement on age grounds. The article is deemed to operate as from the commencement date of the original scheme.
Article 16 amends the provision governing the method of payment of pensions in order to simplify the calculations.
Article 17 is another technical amendment. The scheme as at present was found not to cover certain service of officers who during the emergency period had continuous service but in varying capacities, such as enlisted soldiers, cadets and Reserve officers. The principle that continuous service in such cases should count as pensionable service is not in question and all this amendment does is to write that principle clearly into the relevant schedule. The amendment is retrospective to cover past cases.
Article 19 makes one change in the Fifth Schedule to the principal scheme which governs the rank by which married officers' gratuities are to be calculated by providing that, where an officer holding the appointment of Chief of Staff, Adjutant-General or Quartermaster-General is compulsorily retired, or an officer holding the appointment of Chief of Staff retires in circumstances to which Article 6 of the prinicpal scheme applies, a married officer's gratuity, if payable, shall be calculated by reference to the rank actually held by him at the date of retirement. At present, by reason of the terms of the Fifth Schedule, the possibility exists that an officer retiring in the circumstances mentioned would have his retired pay calculated on his actual retiring rank and his married officer's gratuity on a lower rank held by him 12 months earlier. This amendment will apply the same rank in the calculation of both retired pay and gratuity.
I now come to the last article— No. 23—which effects an important change in the process of making awards under the scheme. Up to this, the consent of the Minister for Finance has been necessary to each grant made under the scheme. Now, however, that the Defence Forces (Pensions) Act, 1957, has taken this requirement out of the Acts it is possible to follow suit in the schemes and this article in effect will remove the Minister for Finance from the granting machinery and enable grants to be made by me without reference to that Minister. Needless to say this will eliminate the administrative procedures involved in referring each case to the Minister for Finance and will, I am confident, improve the administration in my Department and enable awards to be made more expeditiously to those qualifying under the schemes.
That brings me to the end of my statement on this amending scheme which I commend to the House. If there are any points on which further explanation is required I shall be pleased to deal with them when I am concluding.
