Vol. 48 No. 9
I move:—
That the Defence Forces (Pensions) (Amendment) Scheme, 1957, prepared by the Minister for Defence, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, under Sections 2, 3 and 5 of the Defence Forces (Pensions) Act, 1932, and Section 4 of the Defence Forces (Pensions) (Amendment) Act, 1938, and laid before the House on the 12th day of July, 1957, be confirmed.
The Defence Forces (Pensions) Schemes are made under the authority of the Defence Forces (Pensions) Acts, 1932 to 1957. Section 4 of the Act of 1932 provides that no scheme shall come into force unless and until it has been laid before each House of the Oireachtas and has been confirmed by a resolution of each such House. It is in pursuance of the obligation imposed by that section that the amending scheme is now before this House for confirmation.
The scheme, as will be seen, is primarily devoted to granting increases in the service pensions of members of the Army, the Army Nursing Service and the Chaplaincy Service, whose services terminated prior to the 1st November, 1952. An Army pay increase took effect as from that date and anyone serving at that time who later went on pension got the benefit of a correspondingly increased pension under the Defence Forces (Pensions) (Amendment) Scheme of 1956. The increases in this scheme are being given on the same basis as the increases already provided for in the Pensions (Increase) Act of 1956, and in the Army Pensions Act, 1957, which became law in July last. The increases consist of whichever is the lesser of—
"(a) the appropriate sum as defined in Articles 4 and 6, or
(b) the amount which would be payable if the last day of service were the 1st November, 1952, and the rank and service, etc., were the same as on the actual date of discharge."
This scale is the same as that laid down in the Army Pensions Act, 1957, in relation to Army disablement pensions and in the Pensions (Increase) Act, 1956, in relation to other classes of State pensions. The increases commence with effect from the 1st August, 1956, and they are in fact being paid since that date following a Supplementary Estimate for pensions passed in the Dáil on the 25th July, 1956.
The increases apply as well to pensions payable to widows and children of deceased officers and the rates of increase are arrived at by the application of the appropriate sum. The increases which I have mentioned are authorised in Articles 5, 6, 10, 13, 14, 15, 20, 21 and 22. Perhaps what I have said, when taken in conjunction with the explanatory memorandum circulated with the scheme, will suffice and I shall now turn to the general matters included in the scheme.
Articles 7, 8, 9 and 18 concern certain officers of the Naval Service who were commissioned on a temporary basis and of whom some have had service since the days of the emergency when what is now the Naval Service was called the Marine Service. In November, 1946, some of the Marine Service officers retired and were paid gratuities under the normal provisions of the schemes in respect of their service up to then. They were then immediately re-appointed to commissions in the Naval Service on a temporary basis in order to maintain the officer strength of the Service until such time as young officers could be recruited and trained. Special provision to pay these former Marine Service officers gratuities was then made in Article 12B of the scheme. Some of these officers have had their service extended from time to time in the interests of the Service and are still serving, with the result that when they come to retire on age grounds or on the expiry of their present engagements they will have over 12 years' service since 1946. This is the minimum period of service required of a regular officer before he may qualify for retired pay so it has been decided, instead of giving the Naval Service officers in question a gratuity under Article 12B, to make them eligible for an award of retired pay and, if married, a married officer's gratuity in respect of their service since 1946, on the same basis as that applicable to the voluntary retirement of a regular officer. Articles 7, 9 and 18 achieve this. Apart from these officers, there were others who were commissioned on a temporary basis subsequent to 1946 and who had not served in the Marine Service. They are not entitled to any gratuity under the present terms of Article 12B, and Article 8 of the present scheme deals with the matter by bringing them within the terms of Article 12B. It is necessary to make the amendment retrospective to 28th February last in order to cover the case of an officer who retired as from that date. The Article also provides an increased rate of gratuity in respect of service in the rank of lieutenant-commander and rates for the first time for the ranks of ensign and commander.
Article 12 is a technical measure amending sub-article (6) of Article 20 of the scheme to make it clear that the widow of an officer who retired on age grounds with at least 12 years' pensionable service is entitled to a pension under the article. The article has always been construed on this basis but, in order to place the matter beyond question, it is considered desirable to clarify the position by an explicit reference to retirement on age grounds. The article is deemed to operate as from the commencement date of the original scheme.
Article 16 amends the provision governing the method of payment of pensions in order to simplify the calculations.
Article 17 is another technical amendment. The scheme as at present was found not to cover certain service of officers who, during the emergency period, had continuous service but in varying capacities such as enlisted soldiers, cadets and Reserve officers. The principle that continuous service in such cases should count as pensionable service is not in question and all this amendment does is to write that principle clearly into the relevant Schedule. The amendment is retrospective to cover past cases.
Article 19 makes one change in the Fifth Schedule to the principal scheme which governs the rank by which married officers' gratuities are to be calculated by providing that, where an officer holding the appointment of Chief of Staff, Adjutant-General or Quartermaster-General is compulsorily retired, or an officer holding the appointment of Chief of Staff retires in circumstances to which Article 6 of the principal scheme applies, a married officer's gratuity, if payable, shall be calculated by reference to the same rank as applied to the calculation of retired pay. At present, by reason of the terms of the Fifth Schedule, the possibility exists that an officer retiring in the circumstances mentioned would have his retired pay calculated by reference to his actual retiring rank and his married officer's gratuity by reference to a lower rank held by him 12 months earlier.
I now come to the last article— No. 23—which effects an important change in the process of making awards under the scheme. Up to this, the consent of the Minister for Finance has been necessary to each grant made under the scheme. Now, however, that the Defence Forces (Pensions) Act, 1957, has taken this requirement out of the Acts it is possible to follow suit in the schemes and this article in effect will remove the Minister for Finance from the granting machinery and enable grants to be made by me without references to that Minister. Needless to say this will eliminate the administrative procedures involved in referring each case to the Minister for Finance and will, I am confident, improve the administration in my Department and enable awards to be made more expeditiously to those qualifying under the schemes. I shall, of course, continue to be bound by the terms of the schemes which cannot be altered except with the consent of the Minister for Finance and subject to a Resolution of each House of the Oireachtas.
That concludes my statement on this amending scheme which I commend to the House. If there are any points on which further explanation is required, I shall be pleased to deal with them when I am concluding.
Perhaps it might be more convenient for the House and for the Minister if we put this motion to see if any Senator has any question to raise on it and dispose of it.
The Fine Gael Party approves of this motion and therefore I am in favour of it.
I notice that, in reading through the Defence Forces (Pensions) (Amendment) Scheme, 1957, all through the scheme the description given is "the Defence Forces" or "the Forces". In the Irish text, I see that the expression is "Oglaigh na hÉireann" and "Forsaí Cosanta". All through, wherever reference is made, there is "the Army Nursing Service" and "the Naval Service".
In Article 17 of the scheme, at the end of paragraph 2 (a), referring to service, we read: "Such continuous service shall be deemed to be service in commissioned rank in the National Army." That is the only instance in the scheme where I can find any departure from the phraseology "Defence Forces", "Forsaí Cosanta", "Oglaigh na hÉireann" and "the Forces". Can the Minister inform me what exactly the term means? Why was it necessary to depart from the phrases used all through the scheme? Why was it necessary to use that particular term and what exactly does it consist of?
The only point in relation to the motion was raised by Senator Ó Maoláin. It concerned the phraseology used in Article 17 where the words "the National Army" are mentioned. That phrase "the National Army" arises there because Section 17 is an amendment to sub-Rule 2 of Rule 1 of the principal scheme which was introduced in 1937.
The Principal scheme of 1937 arose from the Defence Forces (Pensions) Act, 1932, which was the enabling Act under which Defence Forces (Pensions) Schemes were introduced. The term "the National Army" was defined for the first time in the Defence Forces (Pensions) Act, 1932. It was introduced purely as a drafting term in order to classify under the one title all the different forces that were being catered for in the Defence Forces (Pensions) Act.
Senator Ó Maoláin asked me for the definition given of "the National Army". It is first of all necessary to define what is meant by "the Forces". Section 1 of the Defence Forces (Pensions) Act, 1932, states:—
"In this Act the expression the Forces' means the forces established under Part 1 of the Defence Forces (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1923 (No. 30 of 1923);
The expression ‘the National Army' means the following forces, that is to say:—
(a) the armed forces under the control of the Minister for Defence during the period commencing on the 1st day of February, 1922, and ending on the 31st day of March, 1922, and
(b) the armed forces maintained by the Provisional Government, and
(c) the armed forces maintained by the Government of Saorstát Éireann up to and including the 30th day of September, 1924, and
(d) the Forces,"
——"the Forces" having already been defined. Therefore, it was to include those four categories that the phrase "the National Army" was adopted. It is because Section 17 is an amendment of that section that that phrase is used here. That is the only point raised and I would ask the House to approve the motion.
