Vol. 285 No. 4
asked the Minister for Transport and Power the terms of the draft amending regulation to the Bord na Móna superannuation scheme for manual workers proposed by Bord na Móna last summer and awaiting sanction in his Department; the date on which the proposals were circulated to the board's employees; and the date on which the proposals were received in his Department.
424.
asked the Minister for Transport and Power if he will give particulars of the Bord na Móna superannuation draft amending scheme, 1975, indicating (a) the date on which the proposals for the scheme were furnished to the Bord na Móna group of unions (b) the general purpose of the scheme (c) the date on which the proposals were circulated to the employees of Bord na Móna (d) the date on which the amending scheme was submitted to his Department for sanction (e) the steps proposed to be taken to enable persons, who are retired on attaining the age 65 while ministerial approval is awaited, to qualify for benefit and (f) the number of Bord na Móna employees who have been refused the benefit of any pension because of the delay in approving the amending scheme.
The following is the information requested in respect of Questions Nos. 423 and 424:
The draft scheme to which the Deputy refers is the Turf Development Act, 1953 (Regular Works Employees) Superannuation (Amendment) (No. 5) Scheme, 1975. The provisions of this draft scheme which was submitted for my approval in accordance with the provisions of section 6 (1) of the Turf Development Act, 1953 are shown in appendix 1 following.
(a) The proposals contained in the draft scheme were furnished to the Bord na Móna group of unions on 17th April, 1975.
(b) The general purpose of the draft scheme is set out in appendix 2 following.
(c) The draft scheme was circulated to Bord na Móna employees on 16th May, 1975.
(d) The draft scheme was submitted to my Department on 23rd June, 1975 and received on 24th June, 1975.
(e) I am aware of the position of persons who might be enabled to qualify for a pension under this draft scheme and who retire while the scheme is being considered. The position of such persons is being taken into account in the consideration of the draft scheme.
(f) None.
APPENDIX 1
Draft scheme entitled Turf Development Act 1953 (Regular Works Employees) Superannuation (Amendment) (No. 5) Scheme 1975 as submitted by Bord na Móna.
I, Peter Barry, Minister for Transport and Power in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 6 of the Turf Development Act 1953 (No. 19 of 1953), and with the concurrence of the Minister for the Public Service hereby approve of the scheme set out in the schedule hereto.
SCHEDULE
Bord na Móna in exercise of the powers conferred on it by section 6 of the Turf Development Act, 1953 (No. 19 of 1953), hereby makes the following scheme:
1. This scheme may be cited as the Turf Development Act, 1953 (Regular Works Employees) Superannuation (Amendment) (No. 5) Scheme 1975.
2. The Turf Development Act, 1953 (Regular Works) Superannuation Scheme 1963 is hereby amended as follows:—
(A) Regulation 27 (1) (B) shall be amended by deleting the proviso.
(B) Regulation 23 shall be amended by adding the following paragraphs to Regulation 23 (1) (A).
Provided that such a member may at his option purchase in whole or in part any full time continuous service rendered by him immediately prior to date of entry to the scheme or in the case of a seasonal employee service rendered by him in consecutive years immediately prior to his year of entry to the Scheme.
Provided further that employees, including seasonal employees, who are over the age of 55 years and who are not members of the scheme may purchase such service on the basis outlined in the previous paragraph to enable them to qualify for benefits in accordance with the regulations of the scheme.
The amount of the contribution arising from the foregoing shall be determined by the actuary in each case and the board shall make payments into the fund equal to the aggregate of the members' contributions.
(C) Regulation 34 shall be amended by the addition of the following paragraph:
Provided that a member who was discharged on redundancy between the 14th March, 1963 and the 30th August, 1972 and whose contributions (plus interest) have been returned to him and who has been re-employed, shall have the right to refund to the fund those contributions and interest together with a further sum for interest for the period extending from the date of such discharge to the date of reentry to the scheme, the amount of such interest to be determined by the Actuary and thereby obtain credit for all past pensionable service.
(D) Regulation 36 (2) (C) shall be amended by deleting the following words: "and apportioning the said amount as between the parts of the fund approved under section 32 of the Finance Act 1921 and section 34 of the Finance Act 1958 respectively".
APPENDIX 2
Purpose of Draft Scheme Entitled Turf Development Act, 1953 (Regular Works Employees) Superannuation (Amendment) (No. 5) Scheme, 1975.
This draft scheme amends the Superannuation Scheme for Bord na Móna Regular Works employees as follows:
(1) Regulation 23: The amendment to this regulation provides that existing members of the scheme, including seasonal members and employees, who could not attain membership of the scheme because they were over 55 years of age at a particular time be allowed to contribute for service rendered from the 14th March, 1963 onwards as follows:
(a) Existing members employed on a continuous wholetime basis would be allowed to contribute for all or part service rendered immediately prior to date of entry to the scheme i.e. unbroken service. If for example an employee joined the scheme on the 1st January, 1973 and had unbroken service with the board from the 1st January, 1965 up to the 1st January, 1973 he would now contribute for all or part of the service rendered between the two dates mentioned.
(b) Existing seasonal members would be allowed to contribute for all or part service rendered in consecutive years immediately prior to date of entry to the scheme. If again for example an employee first entered the scheme in the 1974 season and had been employed in seasons 1973, 1972 and 1971 he would now be enabled to contribute for all or part service rendered in these three seasons.
(c) Employees (non-members) over 55 years of age would be allowed on entry to the scheme to contribute for all or part service rendered immediately prior to date of entry in the case of continuous wholetime employees or service rendered in consecutive years immediately prior to date of entry to the scheme in the case of seasonal employees.
Employees would be required to have ten years' service to qualify for pension and retirement benefits and this proposal would enable persons who could not attain membership because they were over 55 at the particular time to contribute in respect of previous years and thereby make up the necessary ten years. The examples given under (a) and (b) also apply to these categories.
The total contributions applicable to all the above groups would be determined by the actuary and would include an interest element and the board and the member would contribute equal amounts. The increased contribution to cover the service involved would be incorporated with the existing contribution and would be payable over the remaining years to date of retirement.
(2) Regulation 34: This amendment provides that members who were discharged on grounds of redundancy between the 14th March, 1963 and the 30th August, 1972 and whose contributions (plus interest) had been returned to them and who have since been re-employed, would have the right to refund these contributions (plus interest) to the fund together with a further sum for interest for the intervening period and thereby obtain credit for all past pensionable service. In other words if a member was discharged on redundancy grounds between the dates mentioned and received a refund of contributions (with interest) at the time the draft scheme provides that he may now pay back to the fund the amount refunded to him plus a further sum in respect of interest (to be determined by the actuary) in respect of the intervening period and by so doing he would regain all the pensionable service he had when he was discharged in the first instance.
(3) Regulations 27 and 36: The amendments to these regulations are requirements of the Revenue Commissioners and have no material effect on the existing scheme.
