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Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 17 Feb 1965

Vol. 214 No. 4

Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Army Discharges on Medical Grounds.

69.

asked the Minister for Defence whether any provision can be made for members of the Defence Forces who are discharged from the Forces on the ground of ill health, who are in the circumstances of a member (name supplied) whose illness renders him unable to secure employment in civilian life.

The person referred to by the Deputy enlisted in the Permanent Defence Force on 22nd March, 1958, and was transferred to the Reserve Defence Force on 27th October, 1962, at his own request on compassionate grounds. He re-enlisted on 7th January, 1964, and was discharged on medical grounds on 13th November, 1964. The Army Pensions Acts make no provision for the consideration of a claim in respect of disease attributable to service during these periods, unless the disease was attributable to service with a United Nations force. As the person in question did not so serve, it is regretted that he is not eligible to apply for a disability pension. There is, in any event, no suggestion that his disability is attributable to his Army service.

I do not propose to amend the Army Pensions Acts to make provision for this or similar cases.

Would the Minister not agree that there seems to be some hardship involved in that a man, who is serving with the Defence Forces, contracts a disease which renders him incapable of getting employment in civilian life, after his discharge from the Army on medical grounds, not having received any kind of compensation, pension allowance or sickness pay during the period of his disability?

There is no provision in the Act for any such purpose.

I fully appreciate that, but does the Minister not think provision requires to be made to cover the circumstances of somebody who is discharged on medical grounds, having been accepted by the Army as being in sound physical health, and who finds himself unable to get employment in civilian life subsequent to his discharge?

To do so, would be to establish a principle applicable to the Army which does not apply to the Garda Síochána, civil servants and other public employees, or in the administration of workmen's compensation. If we were to do what the Deputy asks, we should be making a very special case in the Army. It is true to say, I think, that normal Army service does not contain any risks of a more dangerous kind than does employment in agriculture, forestry and so forth.

But will the Minister not agree that, if a man falls ill, ordinarily in one's employment——

He was not on active service.

——so long as the man is not able to earn his living, any normal employer will do something to help him? Perhaps the Minister would consider this matter. Is it not true that in the Civil Service civil servants who fall ill get 12 months on full pay and six months on half pay and if they are still not able to resume then, a further period is allowed before they are finally discharged from the Public Service? Perhaps the Minister would consider the question on the merits.

I shall certainly consider the last point the Deputy made but, on the information supplied by me both in the original reply and in the supplementaries, I have given the Deputy, I think, the gist of the matter frankly and fairly, as I understand it.

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