As Senators can see, this is a very simple and very brief Bill. The Bill is merely an empowering Bill that empowers the Minister for Defence, with the approval of the Minister for Finance, to bring in a new scheme with regard to the retiral pay and pensions of members of the Defence Forces.
If authority is given to this Bill that new scheme must, like the parent scheme, be submitted for approval to both Houses. The permission sought in this Bill is to empower the two Minister to bring in a new scheme which will embrace the Army chaplains. The existing scheme includes members of the Defence Forces and members of the Army Nursing Service, but it does not include Army chaplains. There are at the moment a number of Army chaplains who have service of 20 years or more and, under the existing scheme, they are not pensionable. This proposal has been submitted for the consideration of the Bishops and they approve. In the Dáil exception was taken to the term "chaplaincy service." It is not a very elegant expression but I had the matter looked into and I find that those are the words that have been used in Defence Force regulations since the first reference to the chaplain service of the Army. I have been advised by the legal people in the office of the Parliamentary draftsman that it is wiser and safer to stick to the terms that are already used.