asked the Minister for Finance if he is prepared to give credit for Army service to prison officers who had such service for pension purposes.
13.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Credit for Army Service.
12.
asked the Minister for Finance if he is prepared to agree to grant State employees credit for service in the Army prior to their employment by the State, particularly in the case of those who have obtained such credit for incremental purposes.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 12 and 13 together. The answer is in the negative.
Does the Minister consider that people who have served in the Army and subsequently gone into the State service, even though they are given credit for their period in the Army for incremental purposes, should not get similar credit for pension purposes?
The Army are in a special position. They have their own pension scheme and the period over which Army personnel can qualify for pension is much shorter than that in the case of other public servants.
Surely the Minister understands that most of the people who were involved in the emergency and who have since then taken up service with the State have had only a very short period, six to seven years, with the Army? Those are the people referred to in the question, and I thought I made that clear. Would he not consider giving those people the same credit for pension purposes as they get for incremental purposes?
The people involved in the emergency came into the public service other than the Army by and large through the medium of a competition limited in many cases, and on appointment to the public service after this competition, they were started much higher on the incremental scale than they otherwise would have been because of their Army service.
Would they not get the same consideration for their service in regard to pension as they get for incremental purposes? Quite a number of people who served in the Army in the early years of this State are now State servants and the Minister will discover that these people are being very harshly treated. I should like the Minister to have a special look at their case if he would not mind.
Yes, I shall.