asked the Minister for Health if he is aware that members of the Army Medical Corps, i.e., doctors and nurses, are not graded or classified as pensionable officers of a local authority when applying for a local authority post; and if he will take steps to have this matter rectified.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Medical Posts under Local Authorities: Classification of Members of A.M.C.
8.
My concern in this matter is limited to the qualifications and the salary attaching to the posts involved.
Qualifications are settled without regard to the type of authority with which any previous service was given, the only exception being that when an upper age limit is prescribed, it is customary to provide, broadly, for exemption for persons who are already permanent officers in the local authority service.
Is the Minister not satisfied that the upper age limit should extend to Army service? Is he not further of the opinion that service in the Army is equivalent to local authority service in these pensionable posts?
I could not accept that contention at all. So far as the local authority health service is concerned, it is quite a different type of service from that which is operating in the Army.
Is the Minister asserting that the service given by doctors and nurses in the Army is not of the same type as that given by doctors and nurses in local authorities and does he assert that their service is of a lower standard than that rendered to the local authority?
I do not assert that it is of a lower standard. I say the circumstances in which it is given are different and they cannot be regarded as officers of local authorities. The Army is not a local authority, you know.
Will the Minister, then, advise local authorities that they may give the upper age limit privilege to doctors and nurses serving in the Army Medical Corps?
Of course, that is not just as simple as it appears. A person may retire from the Army service, having received a substantial gratuity and in the enjoyment of a pension, and should he be put in a position to compete with persons who have to stay for a great deal longer in the local authority service before they get an equivalent pension? I think equity is against that.
Arising further from the Minister's reply——
We cannot debate the matter.
No. The Minister has made a statement. Arising out of that statement, I wish to ask the Minister does he contend that members of the Army Medical Service should not be allowed to decide whether it is to their advantage or disadvantage to apply for a local authority post?
No; that is not the point. The point is whether the service in which they have already earned a pension is to be regarded as the equivalent of local authority service. I do not think it can be.