I do not know if there is such a Member in this House but I told a Deputy in the Dáil in 1998 that I intended to oblige him on the next possible occasion. Bringing forward this section is my way of obliging him.
I now turn to the sections which have to do with pensions. These are sections 11 to 19, inclusive, and section 29, which deal with pensions and severance allowances for office holders, section 27 which covers contributions to the Houses of the Oireachtas (Members) pension scheme, and sections 45 to 59, inclusive, which deal with transfer of pensionable service.
I am introducing a number of amendments to the pension and severance allowance regime for Ministers and other office holders. I have reviewed these superannuation entitlements and come to the conclusion that a number of the existing provisions need to be amended to take account of the role and responsibilities of office holders and bring certain of the provisions relating to spouse's and children's pensions more into line with modern practice. In addition, I am providing for the transfer of pensionable service into and out of the pension schemes for Members of the Oireachtas, Irish Members of the European Parliament, the Judiciary and court officers.
As Senators will appreciate, the pension provisions of the office holders' pension scheme are complex. Sections 11 to 19, inclusive, of the Bill provide for certain amendments to the pension and severance payments available to office holders and their surviving spouses and children under the Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices Act, 1938, to which I shall refer as "the 1938 Act" while speaking about office holder pensions. Besides providing for these amendments to the scheme, I am taking the opportunity, on the advice of the parliamentary counsel, to tidy up a number of the pension sections in the 1938 Act, which will help to explain the reason we are dealing with so many pages on pensions in this Bill.
The Bill provides that, instead of an allowance, the Leader of the Seanad will be paid a salary as an office holder. The position will be pensionable as a secretarial office under the office holders' pension scheme and section 11 provides accordingly by naming the position of Leader of the House in Seanad Éireann as a secretarial office for the purposes of the scheme, with effect from 17 September 1997.
At present, a former office holder who has the necessary service qualifies for a pension under the office holders' pension scheme if he or she is 55 years or older. However, it is possible for a person who is aged between 50 and 55 years to opt to take a discounted pension instead, which takes account of the increased length of time for which the pension will be payable. I propose to remove the option to take a discounted pension and reduce the minimum age for payment of pension under the scheme to 50 years. Section 12 of the Bill provides for these two changes by amending section 13A of the 1938 Act; however, section 12 of the Bill also rewrites subsection (5) of section 13A for the sake of clarity, mainly because it was too long. Section 12 of the Bill is, as a result, quite long because it breaks up subsection (5) into a number of more manageable subsections. The substantive changes are towards the end, in the amendments to subsection (7) of section 13A of the 1938 Act and the new subsections (9) and (10) of that section. The reduction in the age for payment of pension will apply from the date this Bill is passed.
I am reducing the minimum length of service needed to qualify for a pension under the office holders' pension scheme from the present three years to two years. Entitlement to maximum pension under the scheme accrues over ten years; this fast accrual reflects the responsibilities attaching to public office at this level. It is reasonable that the minimum period of service required to gain entitlement to a pension should also reflect the reality and the vicissitudes of life in political office.
A person with two years' qualifying service will be entitled to a pension of 20% of the appropriate salary, building up to the existing 25% rate under the new office holders' scheme for three years' service. This change will apply to and in respect of all former office holders who have at least two but less than three years in office because I see no reason a person who was an office holder before now for at least two but less than three years should not be entitled to a pen sion for that service if present and future office holders are to have this entitlement. This change is being implemented by section 13 of the Bill, which inserts a new section 13AA in the 1938 Act and will apply from the date the Bill is passed.
I am also making changes to the rules of the office holders' pension scheme in so far as they affect an Attorney General who is not at the same time a Member of either House. Taking the case of an Attorney General who is a Member of either House, he or she is paid the same salary as a Minister and pensioned on that amount under the office holders' scheme. He or she is also paid a salary as a Member and the service as a Member is pensionable under the Houses of the Oireachtas (Members) pension scheme. However, if the Attorney General is not a Member of either House, he or she is paid the same salary as a Minister and, in addition, an amount equal to a Deputy's salary. At present, that additional amount is not taken into account under the office holders' pension scheme. This is anomalous and I propose to rectify it.
Section 13 of the Bill, accordingly, inserts a new section 13AB in the 1938 Act which enables this to be done. This change will apply, with effect from the date this Bill is passed, to and in respect of surviving former Attorneys General entitled to a pension under the office holders' pension scheme. An associated provision is included in section 17 of the Bill to allow a similar change to be made in the calculation of a severance allowance payable to an Attorney General who is not also a Member of either House of the Oireachtas.
Section 14 of the Bill inserts a new section 13E in the 1938 Act which provides for an increase in a secretarial pension to take account of the new allowance payable to Ministers of State who regularly attend meetings of the Government. Payment of this allowance, which was recommended by the Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Sector, is dealt with later in section 40. Section 18 enables the allowance to be taken into account for severance payment purposes. I have also reviewed the provisions in the office holders' pension scheme for payment of benefits to spouses and children of former office holders. There are a number of outdated provisions in that area which I propose to amend with effect from the date this Bill is enacted.
The existing scheme allows a pension to be paid to the surviving spouse of a former office holder only where the marriage took place before or while the person held office. This is a very unusual provision and I am changing it to allow a spouse's pension to be paid regardless of when the marriage took place. The change is in section 15 of the Bill, which, on the advice of the parliamentary counsel, rewrites section 20 of the 1938 Act in its entirety for the sake of clarity. Section 15 of the Bill also makes two amendments to the provisions for payment of an allowance to the surviving children of an office holder.
At present, a child's allowance, as it called in this scheme, is payable only to the child of a marriage which took place before or while a person held office. In future, any child, stepchild or adopted child of a deceased office holder will be entitled to a child's allowance, subject to the rules of the scheme. The other amendment is that, for obvious equality reasons, I am extending to male children the present rule that a child's allowance to a female ceases on marriage.
Section 16 of the Bill inserts three new sections, 20A, 20B and 20C, in the 1938 Act. The new section 20A confirms the existing practice that a child's allowance under the office holders' pension scheme is increased in line with general pay increases in the Civil Service. The new section 20B provides that a child's allowance can continue in payment for a child's lifetime where the child is permanently incapacitated and the incapacity arose before the child was 21 years. The new section 20C amends the provision whereby a spouse's pension ceases when the surviving spouse remarries. This provision is common to public sector pension schemes generally; however, it would normally be accompanied by a provision that payment of pension may recommence where there are compassionate grounds for doing so. I am amending the office holders' pension scheme to allow the Minister for Finance to reinstate a spouse's pension which has ceased on remarriage where the marriage has been annulled or dissolved or where there are compassionate grounds for doing so.
Those are the changes I am bringing forward to the office holders' pension scheme as far as spouse's and children's benefits are concerned. I now address spouse's pensions for Members. During discussions on the Bill yesterday in the Dáil, a number of Deputies expressed concern about the poor financial situation in which some spouses of former Members can find themselves. I understand the concern that prompted these comments. The recent increases in Members' salaries, including the long-service increments which are being introduced by this Bill, will carry through into pensions for former Members and into spouses' and children's pensions that are now in payment.
The pension terms for spouses of Members of the Oireachtas are very similar to those relating to spouses' pension schemes in the public sector generally and must be considered in that light. However, I have been considering some changes to the Oireachtas Members' pension scheme to take account of certain anomalies and to deal with representations that have been made to me. Any changes that are made will carry through into spouses' pensions. I hope that any changes I make will help to alleviate the plight of spouses of former Members who are in poor circumstances.
In my early years as a Member, I made the acquaintance of many other Members of the Houses outside the Dáil Chamber and discussed with them topics political and sporting. Our conversations rarely extended to our remuneration, other than in terms of banter about one and other's personal economic situations. In retrospect, we displayed, as a group, a degree of unthinking or disregard of personal economic welfare. Many years ago there was a cartoon strip in which the male explained that he took all the important decisions in his household – namely, what should be national policy on sanctions against Iraq, Third World aid and industrial and regional matters – while his wife took the minor decisions regarding where they lived, what schools the children attended, etc. There was a touch of that about many of us in the past, when we displayed a degree of unthinking disregard for personal economic welfare. I hope that more recent entrants to these Houses allow real life to intrude more often when it comes to taking decisions important to family welfare. Amending the Members' pension scheme is a matter for regulation rather than primary legislation.
Section 19 of the Bill provides for the replacement of section 31(1) of the 1938 Act which grants a special allowance to a former Taoiseach who has not reached the age of 55 and who has not applied for a discounted pension. Since I am reducing the age for payment of a pension from 55 to 50 and removing the option to take a discounted pension, it is necessary to change the reference to age 55 in section 31 to age 50 and to remove the reference to a discounted pension.
Section 27 deals with the contributions deducted from Members' salaries for the Oireachtas Members' pension scheme. Subsection (1) is a technical amendment to section 6A of the Oireachtas (Allowances to Members) Act, 1938, which is the legal basis for the pension deductions. Section 6A as it stands is based on there being a single rate of pay for Deputies and a single rate for Senators. The amended text takes account of the introduction of long-service increments, which are to be pensionable, so that contributions to the scheme can be deducted from them.
A number of Members with well in excess of 20 years' service made the point that they must continue to contribute to the Members' pension scheme even though they have long since earned full entitlement to pension. Section 27(2) provides that deductions from salary towards the scheme will cease to be made when a person has served for 20 years as a Member of the Oireachtas. Deductions from pensionable allowances will cease when a member has paid deductions from allowances in respect of an aggregate period of 20 years. The section also provides that, where Members have already paid contributions for more than 20 years, any excess contributions paid since 26 June 1997 will be refunded.
Section 29 repeals a provision relating to spouses' pensions under the office holders' pension scheme, which was included on a stand-alone basis in the Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices (Amendment) Act, 1952, and which is now incorporated in the revised section 20(4) of the Minis terial and Parliamentary Offices Act, 1938, being inserted by section 15 of this Bill.
Part 10 of the Bill, incorporating sections 45 to 59, provides for the transfer of pensionable service into and out of the Oireachtas pension scheme, the pension scheme for Irish Members of the European Parliament and the pension schemes for members of the Judiciary and court officers. Long-standing arrangements are in place to allow employees of public sector bodies which are members of the public sector and local authority transfer networks to transfer service when they move to another body in the networks. It has not, however, been possible for Members of the Oireachtas, members of the Judiciary or court officers to transfer service. This Bill introduces provisions which will allow this and it will apply also to Irish Members of the European Parliament whose pension scheme is based on the Oireachtas Members' pension scheme.
The mechanism will be that transfer of service will be possible between the pension schemes for Members of the Oireachtas, Irish Members of the European Parliament, Members of the Judiciary and court officers, the Civil Service, bodies which are designated as approved organisations for the purposes of the public sector transfer network and any other body designated by the Minister for Finance under this legislation. The detailed operation of the arrangements will be subject to terms and conditions determined by the Minister for Finance. Those terms and conditions will take account of the enhanced pension accrual rates which apply to Members of the Oireachtas, Members of the Judiciary and court officers.
It will not be possible to transfer service in respect of which a pension has already come into payment. It will be possible to transfer service where a lump sum only has been paid or where contributions have been refunded, provided the lump sum or refunded contributions are paid back in respect of the previous service which a person wishes to transfer.
Sections 45 to 48 define a number of terms and give the Minister for Finance power to designate organisations as approved organisations for the purposes of Part 10. Sections 49 to 52 set out the basic entitlement of Members of the Oireachtas, Irish MEPs, members of the Judiciary and court officers to transfer service. Section 53 provides that transfer of service will be subject to terms and conditions determined by the Minister for Finance or. as appropriate, terms and conditions agreed by the Minister with a designated organisation. In determining the extent to which service can be transferred, account may be taken of differences between pension schemes in terms of the length of time required to earn entitlement to maximum benefit under a scheme. If the transfer of service involves an organisation which is designated as an approved organisation, the terms and conditions agreed between the Minister and the organisation must either provide for the payment of a contribution or set out agreed reciprocal arrangements for the transfer of service.
Section 54 provides that, once service has been transferred, it cannot reckon for superannuation purposes in the organisation from which the service was transferred. Section 55 prohibits transfer of service where a pension has already come into payment. It allows the transfer of service in respect of which a lump sum or gratuity has been paid or contributions have been refunded, provided the lump sum, gratuity or contributions, plus interest, are paid back. Section 56 deals with the detail of applying for transfer of service under these provisions. Section 57 allows pension schemes to be amended to take account of these new transfer provisions where the authorities who are responsible for the scheme would not already have the power to make such amendments.
Section 58 provides for the making of orders under Part 10 and requires that such orders must be laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas. Finally, as far as pensions are concerned, section 59 enables the trustees of the Houses of the Oireachtas Members' pension scheme to make and receive transfer payments for the purposes of Part 10.
Section 33 deals with postal facilities for Members and section 35 deals with payment of the general expenses allowance to the Attorney General. As Members are aware, the provision of free postal facilities to Members under existing legislation is subject to the requirement that those facilities be used solely for matters arising out of a Member's parliamentary duties. I am aware that there has been some concern on the part of Members in relation to the operation of the existing provision and, specifically, to the interpretation of the term "parliamentary duties". The case has been made that the existing interpretation of that term does not properly reflect or facilitate Members' needs in regard to their normal daily usage of the free postal facilities. I acknowledge that difficulties have arisen in this regard and that those difficulties have arisen, in large part, owing to the absence in existing legislation of a precise definition of the term "parliamentary duties". The difficulty is in deciding what precisely that term encompasses. In my opinion, it is debatable whether one could actually come up with a satisfactory, comprehensive and workable definition as to what exactly constitutes parliamentary duties for the purposes of determining Members' entitlements to free postal facilities.
Having considered the matter, I am satisfied that it would be impractical to attempt to lay down in legislation detailed parameters on the use of free postal facilities. In the absence of a precise and workable definition of parliamentary duties, it seems that the only practical alternative is to remove that phrase from the legislation. I am proposing, therefore, in section 33, to delete the term "parliamentary duties" from section 2 of the 1962 Act.
Section 37 enables the general expense allowance which is currently paid to all office holders who are Members of the Oireachtas to be paid also to an Attorney General who is not a Member of the Oireachtas. The allowance is to meet costs necessarily incurred by office holders in the performance of the duties of their office which will not otherwise be reimbursed. However, existing legislation provides for the payment of the allowance to office holders only if they are also Members of the Oireachtas. An Attorney General who is not a Member of the Dáil or Seanad would not be entitled to receive the allowance. This anomaly is being removed and the provision will be backdated to June 1997.
All that remains is to introduce section 20, which deals with the remuneration and tenure of the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of Dáil Éireann and the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of Seanad Éireann. In the course of the review of issues affecting parliamentarians, the question arose of the Leas-Cheann Comhairle remaining in office during the period when the Dáil was dissolved. The general assumption was that this could not be done because there was not during that period any Dáil for which his deputy chairmanship function needed to be exercised. However, the position became less clear when legal advice was sought.
There is provision in the Constitution for a Ceann Comhairle to be re-elected to the Dáil without standing for election, but there is no provision in the Constitution, legislation or even Standing Orders to retain a Ceann Comhairle who does not wish to be elected to the new Dáil. However, both the Ceann Comhairle and the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad are Members of the Presidential Commission which can be required to act during the period of dissolution. It is, therefore, constitutionally necessary to ensure that the Ceann Comhairle and the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad will be retained in office to ensure that the Presidential Commission, which may have to exercise its function during a dissolution, will be properly and fully constituted. Since under the Constitution their positions, should they be incapacitated or unavailable, are taken by the Deputy Chairmen, it was necessary to make the same provision for the latter.
I commend the Bill to the House.