The purpose of this Bill is to provide that the widows of certain officers who died since 1932 will be covered in the same way as if the regulations had been made immediately the Bill of 1932 passed. In 1932 we passed a Bill empowering the Minister to make regulations. These regulations were laid before the Dáil and approved by the Dáil. The regulations provided that, where officers died in the service after a certain number of years, their services entitled them to a pension. It took a number of years to get the regulations drafted and agreed upon. In the meantime, four or five officers died in the service. We are providing that their widows will be covered by the regulations and will be entitled to a pension. Another thing that we are doing in this Bill is this: we are safeguarding the pension rights of an officer who was transferred to the Civic Guards. In the 1932 Act we safeguarded the rights of officers who were transferred prior to that date.
I think that is all that is in this Bill. The basis of it is to provide that no one will suffer by the delay in framing the regulations which the Oireachtas empowered the Government to make in the Act of 1932.