I move that the Bill be now read a Second Time.
The Institute for Advanced Studies was established under the Institute for Advanced Studies Act, 1940. Section 19 (1) of that Act states that "it shall be the duty of the Council as soon as conveniently may be after the passing of this Act, to prepare and submit to the Minister a scheme for the granting of pensions, gratuities, or other allowances on retirement to such Senior Professors and permanent whole-time members of the academic staff of the several Constituent Schools, and to such permanent whole-time officers of the Institute as the Council, with the approval of the Minister and the concurrence of the Minister for Finance, may determine".
Such a scheme was established by the Council and has been in operation since 1947. This scheme does not, however, provide for the granting of pensions to the widows of professors and other permanent whole-time officers of the academic staff and the existing provisions of the Act of 1940 do not permit of the amendment of the scheme to allow of such provision being made.
Superannuation schemes applicable to academic staffs in many universities, including the Colleges of the National University and Trinity College make provision for the granting of pensions to widows of deceased members of the staff. The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies has accordingly found itself in the position of experiencing difficulty in attracting certain members to the staff of the Institute because of this lack of comparable financial cover for their families. In this respect accordingly the desirable mobility of staff between the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies and other institutions of higher learning could be significantly restricted.
A request has been made to me that section 19 (3) of the Act of 1940 should be amended in such a way as would enable the Council of the Institute to provide in the superannuation scheme for the granting of pensions to widows of deceased members of the permanent wholetime staff. The purpose of the present Bill is to amend the Act accordingly.
The main conditions of the scheme which the Council of the Institute proposes to introduce to allow of the payment of pensions to the wives of deceased members are as follows:
(a) a contribution towards the cost of the pensions would be made by male members of the academic staff in pensionable posts. The amount of this contribution would be 1? per cent of salary per annum in the case of a junior member of the staff, 1¾ per cent in the case of the ordinary professor and 2 per cent in the case of the senior professor;
(b) to be eligible for a pension under the scheme a widow must have been married to the contributor before he retired from the Institute's service;
(c) the amount of the pension would be one-third of the pension payable to the husband if at the date of his death he were already in receipt of a pension from the Institute, or one-third of the pension which would have been payable to him had he retired on pension on the grounds of ill-health at the date of his death while in the service of the Institute;
(d) payment of the pension would cease on the death or re-marriage of the recipient;
(e) a pension would not be payable unless at least ten years' contributions had been paid by or in respect of the contributor.
I consider that the measure is required to bring conditions of service for the academic staff of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies into line with those obtaining generally in Institutes of similar standing and I recommend the Bill to the Dáil for adoption as a non-controversial issue.