Vol. 519 No. 2
133 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to the fact that an established civil servant, who resigned before 1 June 1973 has no pension entitlements if he resigned before reaching retirement age; if there is a procedure for reviewing the equity of this provision; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13906/00]
136 Mr. Lawlor asked the Minister for Finance if he will respond to correspondence from a person (details supplied) in County Dublin with regard to his pension entitlements and to the wider question of the rights of civil servants to appeal to independent arbitration both inside the country and to the EU institutions. [13287/00]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 133 and 136 together.
My Department has, in fact, responded to the correspondence from the person in question. He resigned from the Civil Service in 1960 at age 37. Under the superannuation provisions which applied at that time he thereby automatically forfeited any entitlement to superannuation benefits. Section 6 of the Superannuation Act, 1909, was later amended to allow preservation of benefits in the case of established civil servants who, having given at least five years of reckonable service, resigned before age 60. The amendment of the Act applied only to people who resigned on or after 1 June 1973. Any concession in this person's case would, therefore, require amending legislation and would be costly because, inter alia, it would, in equity, have to be applied in the case of all the other people who resigned before the cut off date. The point at issue has been considered by me and my predecessors on a number of occasions.
As regards arbitration, I would point out that under the terms of the conciliation and arbitration scheme for the Civil Service, superannuation matters are not arbitrable.
