I move amendment No. 6:—
In page 4, to delete sub-sections (2) and (3) and substitute the following new subsections:—
( ) Where a person who is either an officer or a servant in the employment of the board becomes a member of either House of the Oireachtas —
(a) he shall, during the period (in this section referred to as the secondment period) commencing upon his becoming entitled under the Standing Orders of that House to sit therein and ending either when he ceases to be a member of that House or, if it should sooner happen, upon his resignation or retirement from such employment or upon the termination of such employment by the board, stand seconded from such employment, (b) he shall not be paid by, or entitled to receive from, the board any salary or wages, as the case
may be, in respect of the secondment period,
(c) notwithstanding any provision of the Acts, as amended by this Act, or of any scheme made in pursuance of the Superannuation Act of 1942 —
(i) the secondment period shall, for the purposes of any such scheme, be deemed to be service of that person which is reckonable for superannuation benefits under the scheme if, but only if —
(1) he was in the permanent employment of the board and was a contributor under the scheme immediately before the commencement of the secondment period and is not an excluded person (which expression has the same meaning in this and the next following sub-section as it has in Section 13 of the Superannuation Act of 1942),
(II) he elects, by notice in writing given to the board within three months after the commencement of the secondment period, to pay contributions under the scheme in respect of the secondment period in accordance with the provisions of this sub-section, and
(III) he pays, at such times and in such manner as the committee duly appointed under the scheme to administer the scheme may specify, contributions under the scheme in respect of the secondment period equal in amount to the aggregate of the contributions which he would have paid and the contributions which the board would have paid in respect of the secondment period if he had remained without secondment under this sub-section in the service of the board during the secondment period and had been in receipt of remuneration from the board during that period,
(ii) the board shall not pay any contributions under the scheme in respect of the secondment period, but that part of the contributions payable by him as aforesaid which is equal to the amount of the contributions which the board would have paid under the scheme in respect of the secondment period if he had remained without secondment under this sub-section in the service of the board during the secondment period and had been in receipt of remuneration from the board during that period shall, for the purposes of the scheme, be deemed to have been paid by the board,
(iii) if the secondment period is terminated by his death or by his retirement from such employment, he shall, for the purposes of the scheme, be deemed to have died in or to have been retired from the service of the board, as the case may be, and to have been in receipt of remuneration from the board immediately before such death or retirement, as the case may be,
(iv) if he does not pay or if, having paid contributions under the scheme in accordance with the provisions of this sub-section, he ceases to pay contributions as aforesaid, he shall, for the purposes of the scheme, be deemed to have resigned from such employment —
(I) in case he ceases to pay contributions as aforesaid, on the date of the last payment, and
(II) in any other case, immediately before the commencement of the secondment period, and
(v) a reference in this or the next following sub-section to the receipt by any person of remuneration from the board shall be taken as a reference to the receipt by that person of remuneration from the board at the rate at which he was being remunerated by the board on the last day of his whole-time employment with the board before his secondment under this sub-section, and
(d) (i) notwithstanding any provisions of the Acts, as amended by this Act, if he is an excluded person and was in the permanent employment of the board immediately before the commencement of the secondment period, the secondment period shall, for the purposes of the payment of and calculation of the amount of any superannuation benefit to which he is entitled, be deemed to be service of that person which is reckonable for superannuation benefits payable by the board under Section 39 of the Electricity (Supply) Act, 1927, or Section 13 of the Superannuation Act of 1942 and he shall, for the purposes aforesaid, be deemed to have been in receipt of remuneration from the board during the secondment period, and
(ii) if the secondment period is terminated by his death or by his retirement from such employment, he shall, for the purposes aforesaid, be deemed to have died in or to have been retired from the service of the board, as the case may be, and to have been in receipt of remuneration from the board immediately before such death or retirement, as the case may be.
( ) if a person who is or was an officer or servant of the board becomes entitled to a pension under the Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices Acts, 1938 to 1952 —
(a) he shall not be entitled to reckon the whole or any part of his period of pensionable service, within the meaning of those Acts, for any superannuation benefits payable under a scheme made in pursuance of the Superannuation Act of 1942 or payable by the board,
(b) if he has paid any contributions in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (2) of this section in respect of that period, so much thereof as is equal to the amount of the contributions which he would have paid in respect of that period under the scheme if he had remained without secondment under sub-section (2) of this section in the service of the board during that period and had been in receipt of remuneration from the board during that period, shall be returned to him if and when a payment of benefit or a return of other contributions is made to him under the scheme, and
(c) if he is an excluded person, an amount equal to the amount which would have been returned to him under paragraph (b) of this sub-section if he had not been an excluded person and had paid contributions in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (2) of this section in respect of that period shall be paid to him by the board if and when a payment of benefit or other payment on foot of his superannuation entitlement is made to him by the board.
This is a fairly protracted amendment but I foreshadowed it on the Second Reading. The purpose of the amendment is to provide that where an employee of the E.S.B. goes up for election to the Dáil and secures election he will be seconded from the employment of the board but entitled to go back to that employment when he ceases to be a member of the Dáil and will, in the meantime, be able to preserve his pension rights by paying both his own and the board's contributions to the pension fund. By and large, that is the purpose of the section. There are special provisions dealing with the case of an E.S.B. employee seconded from the board becoming a Minister or a Parliamentary Secretary and qualifying for a Ministerial or a Parliamentary Secretary's pension. In that case the amount of his pension from the board would be modified accordingly.
There is also a provision that an employee so elected may, if he wishes, cease to pay these contributions and will thereby be regarded as having resigned from the board's employment and having surrendered his pension rights with them. I mentioned on the Second Reading that the aim was to endeavour, as far as possible, to put employees of the E.S.B. on much the same basis as employees of C.I.E. have been in regard to election to the Dáil. Up to the present, of course, they were completely debarred from seeking election; now they are permitted to seek election but not to function as employees of the board during their period as elected representatives.