I move amendment No. 1:—
Before section 29, in page 10, to insert the following new section:
"(1) In this section ‘the relevant provision of the Acts' means—
(a) subsection (2) of section 2 of the Act of 1923,
(b) subsection (2) of section 9, subsection (2) of section 10, subsection (2) of section 11, subsection (2) of section 12, and subsection (2) of section 13 of the Act of 1927, and
(c) subsection (3) of section 10 of the Act of 1932.
(2) The relevant provisions of the Acts, as respects any person who was engaged in pre-truce military service and who is in receipt of a disability pension or a wound pension under the Acts, shall be construed as if, in respect of a disease contracted during service which terminated before the 10th day of December, 1932, or a wound received before the 10th day of December, 1932, the sole condition necessary as to the marriage of that person for the grant of a further pension or a married pension to such person was that such marriage took place on or after the 10th day of December, 1932, and before the 5th day of August, 1953, and accordingly, the appropriate further pension or married pension shall, on application being made to the Minister, be payable under the Acts, from such date (not earlier than the date of the passing of this Act) as the Minister may determine, to such person provided he was, on such date, a married man for the purposes of the Acts.
(3) Nothing in this section shall be construed as authorising the payment of a further pension or a married pension to a person who was granted such pension in respect of a period before the 5th day of August, 1953, and whose wife died and who re-married before that date.
(4) Subsection (1) and subsection (2) of section 12 of the Act of 1959 shall not be construed as affecting the operation of subsection (2) of this section.
(5) Every application for a pension under the relevant provisions of the Acts as amended by this Act shall be made not later than twelve months after the date of the passing of this Act and shall be in such form and contain such particulars as the Minister may require."
Having further considered the representations made with regard to the latest date of marriage for persons with pre-truce service I have sought and received the approval of the Government to introduce amending sections which have the effect of bringing the latest date of marriage up to the 5th August 1953, the date of enactment of the Army Pensions Act, 1953, in which the original concession was introduced. The most convenient way of doing it is to repeat the provisions of Sections 39 and 40 of the Act of 1953, substituting the 5th August 1953 for the 10th December, 1932 as the latest date of marriage.
Deputies will, I feel sure, agree that this extension is highly reasonable. It enables persons with pre-truce service to qualify for married pensions, and their dependants for allowances, even though the marriage took place 30 years after the time when the wound was received or the disease contracted. Short of having no latest date of marriage at all, which, as I mentioned last week, would cover even death-bed marriages, I do not think that I could reasonably be expected to go any further than I am doing.
I am providing specifically that certain provision of the Act of 1959 which embodied the general conditions that marriage should have taken place before the date of wound or the date of discharge will not apply to these particular cases. I am also providing that where a person already had a marriage pension in respect of one marriage and his wife died, he shall not be entitled to a marriage pension in respect of a subsequent marriage. A person will be able to qualify in respect of a second marriage contracted before the 5th August, 1953, provided that he had not a marriage pension in respect of his previous marriage.
