I move my recommendation:—
Section 2, sub-section (2). To delete the sub-section and to substitute therefor a new sub-section as follows:—
(2) The Executive Council may at any time by order revoke or suspend for such time as they think proper for reasons stated in such order any pension granted under this Act, but no such pension shall be so revoked or suspended unless and until the reasons for such proposed revocation have been communicated in writing to the person in receipt of the pension and such person has been given a reasonable opportunity of making to the Executive Council such explanation, answer or other case as he may think proper in relation to such proposed revocation or the reasons therefor, and every order made by the Executive Council under this section shall be published in the Iris Oifigiúil as soon as may be after it is made.
On the last day I raised the question of the undesirability of leaving to the Executive Council without check the power to revoke a pension that had once been given without assigning cause or making public the fact of the revocation. This is not entirely a new matter. In 1924 there was passed the Military Service Pensions Act, and in 1925 the Military Service Pensions (Amendment) Act was passed. In the Act of 1925 the Minister took power to revoke pensions given under the previous Act. But he provided against revocation without hearing the person, and against revocation without publicity. The amendment I have down is taken almost verbatim from the Act of 1925. In the discussion on that Bill I, with others, attempted to get a little more check than the Dáil had provided for. The Bill that was then introduced and the Bill that was then passed contained the section which I have put down and which I seek to have inserted in this Bill. I want to make this point very clear that this amendment has no particular significance because it is introduced at the present moment. It has no relation at all one might say to the case of the late Gárda Commissioner. It might be said to have more concern with the present Gárda Commissioner or his successor. This House and the late Government probably solved the question effectively with regard to the late commissioner when they amended the Constitution. This is not a Bill to deal only with the late commissioner, but with commissioners in general. I want to make sure that it will not be within the power of the Executive simply to deprive a man of a pension without giving him an explanation, without hearing the statement of his case and without making known the fact to the public, to the Dáil and to the Seanad that such pension had been revoked. It is an important matter that the Executive Council should not be able to hold over the heads of men who have retired from the public service the threat that if they do not do what the Executive Council of the day may think desirable the pension may be withdrawn or revoked. This is the very minimum that can be asked for, that such pensioner should have an opportunity of stating his case against revocation, that such a provision should be inserted in the Act and that the fact of the revocation should be published in the "Official Gazette."
That is all that the amendment seeks to accomplish. As there is no such urgency in this case as there was in the last Bill, I ask the House to consider it and to agree to the amendment. I hope the Minister will concede the point immediately. He will hardly be less amenable to this kind of reason than his predecessors. The Seanad will remember in the case of the 1925 Act from which this is taken that it had particular reference to the pensions that had been granted. There was, because of certain events which had happened in the Army, a position in which certain powers had to be given. Though these circumstances were critical at the time, the Minister of the day provided that the pensions should not be revoked without giving the person an opportunity of stating his reasons against the revocation and also ensuring that publicity of the revocations would be granted.
