asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will take steps to ensure that all commissioned officers and members of the Defence Forces who became partial voluntary contributors will be afforded the maximum benefits under the Social Welfare Acts.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Social Welfare Benefits for Defence Forces.
42.
Commissioned officers of the Defence Forces, including permanent members of the Army Nursing Service, in common with pensionable civil servants, pensionable employees of local and other public authorities and of statutory transport undertakings, and pensionable national, secondary and vocational teachers, who become voluntary contributors under the Social Welfare Acts preserve title to those benefits, viz. widows' and orphans', for which they were previously insured on a compulsory basis. I do not propose to alter that position.
Other members of the Defence Forces who become voluntary contributors on leaving the Defence Forces—they remain in compulsory insurance while serving—preserve title to the same social welfare benefits viz. widows' and orphans' pensions and old age (contributory) pensions, as all other classes of compulsorily insured persons who become voluntary contributors.