The Bill is to enable me to increase certain pensions payable in respect of public service. I have previously, in bringing in certain token Estimates in Dáil Eireann, indicated the general scheme and that, having got the token Estimates from Dáil Éireann, the pensions would be payable forthwith, and wait for the enabling legislation to follow. A great many have been paid in full. The pensions dealt with are in respect of public service of civil servants, teachers, police and widows and children of Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries. The Bill also deals with certain local and harbour authority employees and there is a special class of employees of the Electricity Supply Board who are dealt with. They are a special class whose pensions are restricted under a particular Emergency Powers Order. If the restriction is to be removed it is thought better to do it by this legislation than by Order.
The payment of the pensions is run according to a certain scale, but the increase in pension is subject to a couple of limitations. There had been a general increase in remuneration that took place about the end of 1946, and the first restriction that there is in this piece of legislation, is that any pension which is calculated by reference to remuneration below the level obtaining towards the end of 1946 will be raised, but not raised any higher than by reference to the remuneration at that particular date. The second thing is, that there is a ceiling of £450 put upon the pensions. If a pension now being paid, is at or above a sum of £450 a year, then it is not being increased at all. In so far as any pension under that limit is increased after the application of the percentages I will go on to mention, to raise it above the sum of £450, then it stops at £450. Subject to these two limitations, the increases authorised are as set out in one of the sections. Where the pension does not exceed £100 a year, 50 per cent. of the pension; where the pension exceeds £100 but does not exceed £150 a year, 40 per cent. of the pension, but not less than £50; where the pension exceeds £150 but does not exceed £450 a year, 30 per cent. of the pension, but not less than £60, provided that no pension will be increased to more than £450 a year.
Of course, the overriding maximum of £450 comes in there. Certain pensions now paid have in them an element that is attributable to emergency bonus that was paid during some date from 1940. From any persons receiving pensions which were increased, we take away the emergency bonus, and then the pensions bereft of that emergency bonus are calculated according to this scale I have given. Any increases that are permitted in this Bill are to be paid as from the 1st April, 1949 or if a pension has commenced at a later date than that it is from whatever date it commenced. All others are being made retrospective to the 1st of April, 1949. There are two or three special points in connection with the proposed restrictions. Civil servants and Gardaí who retired in the period from the 1st of July, 1940, to the 31st of October, 1946, when their salaries were stabilised, have already had increases granted to them under previous legislation, but in respect of those people who had retired before the 1st of July, 1943 the improvement made in the old position would be less beneficial than the improvement made in this legislation. In those cases, it is proposed to give them the benefit of this legislation under that particular head. When the October Estimates were before the Dáil a couple of comments were made, by way of objection, to show that I should have made provision for a minimum increase; that nobody should get anything less than a certain amount. It was represented to me, truthfully at the time, that some of the pensions paid were miserably small; that even a 50 per cent. increase would not be of very much benefit. That is, unfortunately, the case. It has also to be remembered, that where a pension is very small, it must mean that the period in respect of which it has been earned must have been very brief. The difficulty I am in is not the money associated with the particular group of pensioners concerned. The minimum is here laid down, and if anybody finds that minimum pensions would have to be paid, it would mean that a person coming into the Civil Service and retiring for health reasons after a brief period would find himself with a pension at the minimum rate to be paid. If that is not done the Minimum position would find these people better off than people who retired hereafter with very much greater service. For that reason, I decided against it. The cost to State funds of the legislation and the Orders associated with it amounts to £250,000 a year.
The Bill itself deals with national teachers, civil servants, members of the Garda Síochána, the Dublin Metropolitan Police and certain resigned and dismissed members of the Royal Irish Constabulary and a group of others, the widows and children of Parliamentary Secretaries amongst others. I did not make any provision in this particular piece of legislation for the widows of Garda Síocháná or of resigned and dismissed members of the Royal Irish Constabulary or of members of the Dublin Metropolitan Police. It is considered better to provide for these by way of Orders and these Orders have already been agreed. The reason for that was that it was desired that increases given now should apply to future pensions, as well as those already paid. About 500 widows will benefit and 600 children of the deceased Gardaí and members of the Dublin Metropolitan Police will also benefit to some extent. In accordance with this scheme Orders were made providing for increases in Army pensions and the retiring pay of Army people. All the increases that were given have been according to the scale I have mentioned. This is a scheme that is accepted for all these groups. A section in the Bill definitely excludes from the benefit of this legislation any provision at all for increases in pensions awarded under Article 10 of the Treaty to former civil servants or members of the Dublin Metropolitan Police. These are the people who had a certain beneficial position secured for them under the Treaty and under legislation founded on it. They were entitled to the advantage of the legislation under the Treaty, and if they achieved a higher rate of pension at times, than what is now being provided, they have enjoyed enhanced pensions in terms for many years. I do not consider I have any obligation towards them, and I make no provision for them. The increases to harbour and local authorities employees which are referred to here will be granted by the authority concerned, subject all the while to the Minister responsible. The increases to those people will be paid on a basis similar to that applicable to civil servants. The legislation was extremely difficult to draft to cover all the types of people who had to be provided for, and it may not be easy to follow the sections. If the House desires to have a detailed Committee Stage then it will assist that consideration if I very, very sketchily indicate the meanings of the different sections.
Section 1 is mainly a definition section. Section 2 is the section upon which the Bill pivots. It indicates what are to be the appropriate sums; that is to say, the increases that will be given, those percentages I spoke of. Section 3 provides for the increase of the pensions of police and civil servants other than those increased under previous legislation, and the pensions of teachers. Section 4 deals with widows' pensions and children's allowances granted under the Ministerial and Parliamentary Officers Acts, and Section 5 deals with police and Civil Service pensions where the increases under the Bill are being substituted for lesser increases previously granted.
The local authority people are covered by Section 6 and the harbour authorities by Section 7. Section 8 applies where a person has two pensions. It is simply to make provision that we aggregate the pensions as one scheduled pension for the purpose of arriving at the ceiling of £450, and also for making the addition to the pension proportionate to the way in which the present pension is paid. Section 9 is the section which deals with the commencement of the increase which will be retrospective to the day of the commencement of the pension or the 1st April, 1949, whichever is the later. Section 10 deals with a small matter. Under the Pensions (Increase) Act, 1920, pensions that then fell due for payment are subject to a means test. It is desired not to have the trouble of applying the means test hereafter, and what we do is to take the amount of money paid on 1st April, 1949, as the basic amount for the application of the Act.
Section 11 continues to apply any statutory provision providing for the diminution or change that may have to occur in a pension. These are continued in regard to new pensions. Under certain Acts, say, if a person who has a pension gets employment in some of the public offices, then the pension payable by the State ceases, and it is replaced by the other with certain reservations. It is also possible to have a pension forfeited for certain criminal offences and under the Bankruptcy and Lunacy Acts pensions may be changed. We continue to apply these conditions to the new pensions. Section 12 indicates that the increases shall be granted by the Minister who grants the pension. There are special groups in which pensions are granted by the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, the Minister for Education, the Minister for Justice and in other cases by myself.
Section 13 again deals with a small matter—pensions that are granted under an Order—the Royal Irish Constabulary (Resigned and Dismissed) Pensions Order, 1924.
Those are subject to a restriction that the pensions may not at any time come to a higher point than two thirds of the salary to which the pension is related—in this case the salary which the person was in enjoyment of at the date of retirement. We had to change that because it would restrict very narrowly the increase of the pension, and would put in another ceiling in addition to the two limitations we have already applied. Section 14 has been framed to meet a rather special point. It is the position at the moment that if certain pensioners receive what is called a compensation award, then the pension is abated by a certain small amount. Say, a person who is a member of the Garda got what is called a compensation award in the courts in respect of certain matters, the practice up to date has been to substract from the full-time pension about 2½ per cent. of whatever the award is. We want to carry that forward but to make it applicable to the new pensions instead of to the old rate. Section 15 is common form. It allows doubts to be resolved by the Minister for Finance.
Section 16 relates to this group of pensioners who are paid by the Electricity Supply Board. It does not apply to pensioners of the Electricity Supply Board comprehensively, but only to a limited group of people who were previously in the service of a local authority and went over to the Electricity Supply Board and carried with them certain special rights. When the stabilisation took place during the emergency, the money payable to these employees was restricted by an Emergency Powers Order. We are freeing these particular groups of pensioners from the imposition of that Order, and the Electricity Supply Board will pay the pensions, but there will be no longer any handicap such as that imposed by the Emergency Powers Order.
There is nothing in Section 17. It relates back to the rest of the Act. There was no great pressure put on me in Dáil Éireann when this Bill was under consideration except in one matter of the minimum provision. I have said that it is not so much the amount of money involved in meeting the minimum standard as it would be the relation of that at a future time. It would stand as a precedent and would make for justice. In any event, I have made the case in the Dáil and I make it again here, that the provision made for the lower paid pensioners is, I think, on a scale higher than has been made where pensions have been increased elsewhere. Take the example of other countries. I think that in allowing a 50 per cent. increase to the lower groups I have made better provision than is made elsewhere.
With a limited sum of money to deal with, and I had to do the best I could inside the limitations of the money available, there was the difficulty that by increasing the minimum the pensions paid to the higher levels would have to be somewhat reduced. I did not find any great complaint in Dáil Éireann and it was accepted, I think, that another quarter of a million added to the other benefactions last year did represent a good effort to make up for losses, and to compensate for the increase in the cost of living. I recommend the Bill to the House as a good effort to meet the case.
