I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."
Legislation governing the pay, pensions and other work conditions is scattered over individual statutes going back over 40 years and many subsections of those Acts have been amended several times in the interval. For an interested person, chasing through the Statute Book to get to the bottom of even one issue can be a cross between hide and seek and a particularly tough crossword puzzle. It never is the right time to consolidate this kind of legislation and I will not take it on during the life of this Dáil. However, this Bill does incidentally tidy up some of those provisions by rewriting specific sections of the 1938 Act. There is unfortunately a cost of so doing in terms of Members' attention: it involves repeating word for word various subsections of earlier Acts which are not being amended by this Bill. Various changes are set out in different groups in the Bill but I propose to deal together with each of three major strands which run through parts of it.
The Bill gives legislative effect to certain recommendations of report No. 38 of the review body on higher remuneration in the public sector concerning the payment of long service increments to Deputies and Senators and the payment of an allowance to Ministers of State who routinely attend meetings of the Government. The report of the review body recommended that the salary of a Dáil Deputy should be set at the ordinary maximum of the grade of principal, standard scale, in the Civil Service and that the salary of a Senator should be fixed as 70% of that of a Deputy and that both should be revised for the future on that basis. The review body went on to note that long service increments are payable to principals in the Civil Service. One long service increment is payable after three years satisfactory service at the maximum of the scale and a second is payable after six years satisfactory service at the maximum of the scale. A principal entering the grade at the minimum of the scale would have to serve seven years in the grade before becoming eligible for the first long service increment and ten years before becoming eligible for the second. The review body indicated that the introduction by the Government of long service increments for Deputies and Senators would not be incompatible with a link to the grade of principal provided the service as a Deputy or Senator required to qualify for long service increments was comparable to that required of principals. The Government decided to introduce long service increments on this basis.
The review body went on to state that the introduction of long service increments for Deputies and Senators should not result in a situation where different rates of remuneration apply to Ministers. This situation could come about because the remuneration of office holders is made up of an office holder's salary plus the salary of a Deputy or Senator. Accordingly, the application of long service increments could result in Ministers who are Members of the same House being paid differently depending on whether they qualify as a Deputy for two, one or no long service increments. The review body considered that the principle that all Ministers are paid the same remuneration is an important one and that the arrangements for the introduction of long service increments should ensure a common rate of remuneration continues to apply to Ministers and Ministers of State. Likewise, it considered that their introduction should not result in other office holders being paid in excess of the rates it recommended for their posts
Accordingly, the Bill provides that Deputies will be eligible for one long service increment after seven years and a further increment after another three years service – the same provision is included for Senators. As drafted, service as a Deputy and Senator are counted separately for the purposes of calculating the qualifying period. On reflection, it would be more appropriate that service in the Oireachtas rather than membership of any single House should be the criterion. I will be proposing an appropriate amendment on Committee stage. Long service increments will apply with effect from 25 September 2000, the date of the review body report. In line with the Government decision on the phasing in of the pay recommendations of the report, long service increments will be phased in between 25 September 2000 and 1 April 2002. In keeping with the recommendations of the review body, however, ministerial and parliamentary office holders will be paid the standard rate for a Deputy or Senator, as appropriate, and will not receive long service increments for the duration of their terms of office, regardless of their length of service in the Oireachtas.
The review body also considered the position of Ministers of State who routinely attend Government meetings. There are two such Ministers of State – the Minister of State with special responsibility as the Government Chief Whip and the Minister of State to the Government. The review body considered that these Ministers of State carry additional responsibility which warrants remuneration additional to that payable to other Ministers of State and that they should receive an allowance equivalent to that payable to the chairperson of the Committee of Public Accounts and the chairpersons of certain other committees. The Bill provides that such an allowance may be paid to not more than two Ministers of State who routinely attend meetings of the Government and are designated by Government order.
I have also decided to take this opportunity to add the position of assistant party Whip in the Dáil to the positions in the Dáil and Seanad that receive an allowance in recognition of the important work carried out by the Whips in ensuring the smooth running of Dáil business. This allowance will apply to parties with seven or more Members in the Dáil.
One of the positions in receipt of an allowance is that of Leader of the Seanad. The Government has decided that the Leader should be treated for pay purposes as an office holder and that the allowance paid to him will become the salary attaching to the post.
The Bill also provides that Deputies, Senators, ministerial and parliamentary office holders and those holding positions that attract allowances will be able to refuse a pay increase if they should so chose. It has long been a cause of concern to me that Members of the Oireachtas who express their concerns about pay increases for politicians find themselves in the unfortunate position of having no choice but to accept those pay increases themselves. I am happy to follow the established Government policy of accepting the recommendations of the independent review body which, since its establishment in 1969, has made recommendations on the remuneration of not just politicians but also members of the Judiciary and top posts right across the public service. These recommendations have at all times been based on in-depth research and careful assessment of the appropriate position of the posts concerned within the general economy, but if any Member of this House believes that a pay increase is not appropriate, I see every reason for giving him or her the opportunity to refuse it. The Bill provides for this. A refusal will apply to a particular pay increase and further notice may be given if the individual wishes to refuse subsequent increases. An individual may later decide to rescind the refusal, but only from a current date – arrears will not be paid. If there is any Member who is unhappy with a proposed pay increase, now is their opportunity to say thanks – but no thanks.
As a result of legislation introduced in 1998, allowances are paid to the chairs and vice-chairs of committees, committee Whips and the chairs of sub-committees. Not all such positions attract an allowance, and different rates apply to different committees. A Government order will be introduced shortly extending the payment of allowances to all such positions, except where they are held by ministerial or parliamentary office holders, and providing for the same rates to apply to all committees.
I have accepted the advice of the parliamentary counsel that the legislation governing the pay of Members of the Oireachtas, ministerial and parliamentary office holders and members of the Judiciary would benefit from some refinement. This corpus of legislation, which stretches back over many Acts to 1938, is complex and the changes proposed by the parliamentary counsel will serve to bring greater clarity to some important elements of it. This corpus of legislation. which stretches back over many Acts to 1938, is complex and the changes proposed by the parliamentary counsel will serve to bring greater clarity to some important elements of it.
Under pensions, we have the Office Holder Pensions and Severance Allowances – sections 11 to 16 and 29; contributions to Houses of the Oireachtas (Members) Pension Scheme – section 27; postal facilities – section 33; general expense allowance for the Attorney General – section 35; and Transfer of Service for Members of the Oireachtas, Judiciary and Court Officers – sections 46 to 60.
I am also introducing a number of amendments to the pension and severance allowance regime for Ministers and other office holders. I have reviewed these superannuation entitlements and have come to the conclusion that a number of the existing provisions need to be amended to take account of the role and responsibilities of office holders and to bring certain provisions relating to spouse's and children's pensions more into line with modern practice. In addition, I am providing for the transfer of pensionable service into and out of the pension schemes for Members of the Oireachtas, Irish Members of the European Parliament, the Judiciary and court officers.
I have given a great deal of thought to the pension provisions for office holders and have decided that it is appropriate to make a certain number of chances. As Deputies will appreciate, the pension provisions are somewhat complex. Sections 11 to 19 provide for certain amendments to the pension and severance payments available to office holders and their surviving spouses and children under the Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices Act, 1938, which I shall refer to as the 1938 Act while speaking about office holder pensions.
I mentioned earlier that the Bill provides that, instead of an allowance, the Leader of the Seanad will be paid a salary as an office holder. The position will be pensionable as a secretarial office under the office holders' pension scheme and section 11 provides accordingly by naming the position of Leader of the House in Seanad Éireann as a secretarial office for the purposes of the office holders' pension scheme. with effect from 17 September 1997.
At present, a former office holder who has the necessary service qualifies for a pension under the office holder pension scheme if he or she is 55 years or older. However, it is possible for a person who is aged between 50 and 55 to opt to take a discounted pension instead which takes account of the increased length of time for which the pension will be payable. I propose to remove the option to take a discounted pension and to reduce the minimum age for payment of pension under the office holders pension scheme to 50. Section 12 provides for these changes by amending section 13A of the 1938 Act. The office of the Attorney General advised that subsection (5) of section 13A of the 1938 Act be redrafted for the sake of clarity. Section 12 is, as a result, quite a long section but the substantive changes are towards the end of the section in the amendments to subsection (7) of section 13A of the 1938 Act and the new subsections (9) and (10) of that section. This change will apply from the date this Bill is passed.
I am reducing the minimum length of service needed to qualify for a pension under the office holders' pension scheme from the present three years to two years. Entitlement to maximum pension under the office holders' pension scheme accrues over ten years. This fast accrual reflects the responsibilities attaching to public office at this level and it is reasonable that the minimum period of service required to gain entitlement to a pension should also reflect the reality and the vicissitudes of life in political office. A person with two years' qualifying service will be entitled to a pension of 20% of the appropriate salary, building up to the existing 25% rate under the new office holders' scheme for three years' service. This change will apply to and in respect of all former office holders who have at least two years but less than three years' service as an office holder because I see no reason a person who was an office holder before now for at least two years but less than three years should not be entitled to a pension for that service if present and future office holders are to have that entitlement. This change is being implemented by section 13 which inserts a new section 13AA in the 1938 Act and will apply from the date the Bill is passed.
I am also making changes to the rules of the office holders pension scheme in so far as they affect an Attorney General who is not at the same time a Member of either House. Taking the case of an Attorney General who is a Member of either House, he or she is paid the same salary as a Minister and is pensioned on that amount under the office holders' pension scheme. He or she is also paid a salary as a Member and the service as a Member is pensionable under the Houses of the Oireachtas (Members) Pension Scheme. However, if the Attorney General is not a Member of either House, he or she is paid the same salary as a Minister and, in addition, an amount equal to a Deputy's salary. At present, that additional amount is not taken into account under the office holders' pension scheme. This is anomalous and I propose to rectify it.
Section 13, accordingly, inserts a new section 13AB in the 1938 Act which enables this to be done. This change will apply, with effect from the date this Bill is passed, to and in respect of surviving former Attorneys General who are entitled to a pension under the office holders' pension scheme. An associated provision is included in section 17 to allow a similar change to be made in the calculation of a severance allowance payable to an Attorney General who is not also a Member of either House of the Oireachtas.
Section 14 inserts a new section 13E in the 1938 Act which provides for an increase in a secretarial pension to take account of the new allowance payable to Ministers of State who regularly attend meetings of the Government. Payment of this allowance, which was recommended by the Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Sector, is dealt with later in section 40. Section 18 enables the allowance to be taken into account for severance payment purposes.
I have also reviewed the provisions in the office holders' pension scheme for payment of benefits to spouses and children of former office holders. There are a number of outdated provisions in that area which I propose to amend with effect from the date this Bill is enacted. The existing scheme allows a pension to be paid to the surviving spouse of a former office holder only where the marriage took place before or while the person held office. This is a very unusual provision and I am changing it to allow a spouse's pension to be paid regardless of when the marriage took place. The change is in section 15 which, on the advice of the office of the Attorney General, rewrites section 20 of the 1938 Act in its entirety.
Section 15 also makes two amendments to the provisions for payment of an allowance to the surviving children of an office holder. At present, a child's allowance, as it called in this scheme, is payable only to the child of a marriage which took place before or while a person was an office holder. In future, any child. stepchild or adopted child of a deceased office holder will be entitled to a child's allowance subject to the rules of the scheme. The other amendment is that for obvious equality reasons, I am extending to male children the present rule that a child's allowance to a female ceases on marriage.
Section 16 inserts three new sections, 20A, 20B and 20C, into the 1938 Act. The new section 20A confirms the existing practice that a child's allowance under the office holders' pension scheme is increased in line with general pay increases in the Civil Service. The new section 20B provides that a child's allowance can continue in payment for a child's lifetime where the child is permanently incapacitated and the incapacity arose before the child was 21. The new section 20C amends the provision whereby a spouse's pension ceases when the surviving spouse remarries. This provision is common to public sector pension schemes generally. However, it would normally be accompanied by a provision that payment of pension may recommence where there are compassionate grounds for it. I am amending the office holders' scheme to allow the Minister for Finance to reinstate a spouse's pension which has ceased on remarriage where the marriage has been annulled or dissolved or where there are compassionate grounds for it.
Section 19 provides for the replacement section 31 (1) of the 1938 Act, which provides for the payment of a special allowance to a former Taoiseach who has not reached the age of 55, which was the age for payment of a pension under the office holders' scheme, and who has not applied for a discounted pension. Since I am reducing the age for payment of a pension from 55 to 50 years and removing the option to take a discounted pension, it is necessary to change the reference to age 55 in section 31 to age 50 and to remove the reference to a discounted pension.
Section 27 is a technical amendment to section 6A of the Oireachtas (Allowances to Members) Act, 1938, which provides for pension deductions to be made from the salaries of Members of the Oireachtas.
As it stands, section 6A is based on there being a single rate of pay for Members of each House. The amended text takes account of the introduction of long service increments, which are to be pensionable, so that contributions to the scheme can be deducted from them.
Section 29 repeals a provision relating to spouses' pensions under the office holders' pension scheme which was included on a stand-alone basis in the Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices (Amendment) Act, 1952 and which is now incorporated in the revised version of section 20 of the Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices Act, 1938 which is being inserted by section 15 of this Bill.
As Members are aware, the provision of free postal facilities to Oireachtas Members under existing legislation is subject to the requirement that those facilities be used solely for matters arising out of a Member's parliamentary duties. I am aware there has been some concern on the part of Members in relation to the operation of the existing provision and, specifically, to the interpretation of the term "parliamentary duties". The case has been made to me that the existing interpretation of that term does not properly reflect or facilitate Members' needs in regard to their normal day-to-day usage of the free postal facilities. I acknowledge that difficulties have arisen in this regard, in large part due to the absence in existing legislation of a precise definition of the term "parliamentary duties". The difficulty is in deciding what precisely the term "parliamentary duties" encompasses. It is debatable whether one could come up with a satisfactory, comprehensive and workable definition as to what exactly constitutes "parliamentary duties" for the purposes of determining Members' entitlements to free postal facilities.
Having considered the matter, I am satisfied that it would be impractical to attempt to lay down in legislation detailed parameters on the use of free postal facilities. In the absence of a precise and workable definition of "parliamentary duties", it seems to me that the only practical alternative is to remove that phrase from the legislation. I propose, therefore, in section 33 to delete the term "parliamentary duties" from section 2 of the 1962 Act.
Section 37 enables the general expense allowance currently paid to all office holders who are Members of the Oireachtas to be paid to an Attorney General who is not a Member of the Oireachtas. The allowance is to meet costs necessarily incurred by office holders in the performance of the duties of their office which will not otherwise be reimbursed. However, existing legislation only provides for the payment of the allowance to office holders if they are also Members of the Oireachtas. An Attorney General who is not a Member of the Dáil or Seanad would not be entitled to receive the allowance. This anomaly is now being removed and the provision will be backdated to June 1997.
Part 10 provides for the transfer of pensionable service into and out of the Oireachtas pension scheme, the pension scheme for Irish Members of the European Parliament and the pension schemes for the Judiciary and court officers. Long-standing arrangements are in place which allow employees of public sector bodies which are members of the public sector and local authority transfer networks to transfer service when they move to another body in the networks. It has not been possible for Members of the Oireachtas and the Judiciary and court officers to transfer service. This Bill introduces provisions which will allow this and which will apply to Irish Members of the European Parliament because their pension scheme is based on the Houses of the Oireachtas (Members) pension scheme.
The mechanism will be that transfer of service will be possible between the pension schemes for Members of the Oireachtas, Irish Members of the European Parliament, the Judiciary and court officers, the Civil Service, bodies which are designated as approved organisations for the purposes of the public sector transfer network and any other body which is designated by the Minister for Finance under this Act. The detailed operation of the arrangements will be subject to terms and conditions determined by the Minister for Finance and those terms and conditions will take account of the enhanced pension accrual rates which apply to Members of the Oireachtas and the Judiciary and court officers. It will not be possible to transfer service in respect of which a pension has already come into payment but it will be possible to repay a lump sum or a refund of contributions paid in respect of previous service which a person wishes to transfer.
Turning to the individual sections, sections 46 to 49 define a number of terms and give the Minister for Finance power to designate organisations as approved organisations for the purposes of this part. Sections 50 to 53 set out the basic entitlement of Members of the Oireachtas, Irish Members of the European Parliament, the Judiciary and court officers to transfer service. Section 54 provides that transfer of service will be subject to terms and conditions determined by the Minister for Finance or, as appropriate, terms and conditions agreed by the Minister with a designated organisation. In determining the extent to which service can be transferred, account may be taken of differences between pension schemes in terms of the length of time required to earn entitlement to maximum benefit under a scheme. If the transfer of service involves an organisation which is designated as an approved organisation, the terms and conditions agreed between the Minister and the organisation must either provide for the payment of a contribution or set out agreed reciprocal arrangements for the transfer of service.
Section 55 provides that, once service has been transferred, it cannot reckon for superannuation purposes in the organisation from which the service was transferred. Section 56 prohibits transfer of service where a pension has already come into payment; it allows the transfer of service in respect of which a lump sum or gratuity has been paid or contributions have been refunded, provided the lump sum, gratuity or contributions, plus interest, are paid back.
Section 57 deals with the detail of applying for transfer of service under these provisions. Section 58 allows pension schemes to be amended to take account of these new transfer provisions where the authorities who are responsible for the scheme would not already have the power to make such amendments. Section 59 provides for the making of orders under this part and requires that such orders must be laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas. Section 60 enables the trustees of the Houses of the Oireachtas (Members) pension scheme to make and receive transfer payments for the purposes of this part.
I will refer briefly to the remuneration and tenure of the chairmen and deputy chairmen of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann. In the course of the review of issues affecting parliamentarians, the question arose of the Leas-Cheann Comhairle remaining in office during the period when the Dáil was dissolved. The general assumption was that this could not be done because there was not during that period any Dáil for which his deputy chairmanship function needed to be exercised. The position became less clear when legal advice was sought. There is provision in the Constitution for a Ceann Comhairle to be re-elected to the Dáil without standing for election but there is no provision in the Constitution, legislation or standing orders to keep on a Ceann Comhairle who does not wish to be elected to the new Dáil. However, both the Ceann Comhairle and the Cathaoirleach are members of the Presidential Commission which can be required to act during the period of dissolution. It is, therefore, constitutionally necessary to ensure that the Ceann Comhairle and the Cathaoirleach are retained in office to ensure that the Presidential Commission which may have to exercise its function during a dissolution is properly and fully constituted. Since, under the Constitution, their position is taken by the deputy chairmen should they be incapacitated or unavailable, it is necessary to make the same provision for them. I commend the Bill to the House.