The Estimate in connection with Superannuation and Retired Allowances amounts to £1,803,305. I beg to move its adoption.
DAIL IN COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC ESTIMATES. - SUPERANNUATION AND RETIRED ALLOWANCES.
I would like the Minister to give an explanation of the items under (cc), which deals with additional allowances under Article 10 of the Treaty. I would also like an explanation in regard to compensation allowances. Do these deal with transfers or displacements?
This Vote does not cover payment of pensions, etc., to officers of the Post Office, Customs and Excise, Inland Revenue, or to members of the Dublin Metropolitan Police. Pensions of officers of Departments other than the above who retired before the 1st April of this year were awarded by the British Government, and are continuing to be paid by that Government. The charge for these pensions will be allocated between the Provisional Government, the British Government, and the Government of Northern Ireland, and the share appropriate to the Provisional Government will be repaid to the British Government. Provision is made under Sub-head 1 for this repayment, the amount inserted being purely provisional. Pensions of officers of Departments other than those first mentioned, who retired after the 1st April, are borne on this Vote, and Sub-heads (a), (b), (c), and (d) make provision for the awards payable under the Superannuation Acts. A number of compensation allowances under Article 10 of the Treaty will be payable to officers who are discharged by the Provisional Government or who retire in consequence of the change of Government. Provision is made for these allowances in Sub-heads (bb) and (cc). A Committee, with Mr. Justice Wylie as Chairman, has been set up to advise the Government as to the amount of compensation payable in such cases. The only other item calling for comment is Sub-head (j). The R.I.C. were disbanded in the earlier part of this year, and the pensions then awarded and the pensions which were payable at the time of disbandment to members of the R.I.C. who had retired before disbandment will be paid by the British Government. Pensions excepted in Article 10 of the Treaty—viz., pensions (if any) to members of the Auxiliaries, and to men recruited in England during the two years preceding the date of the Treaty—will remain a British charge, but the remainder of the charge will be allocated between Ireland and England. No discussions on the allocation of the charge have yet taken place, and the amount inserted in this Estimate is purely provisional.
Motion made and question put: "That the Dáil in Committee, having considered the Estimates for Superannuation and Retired Allowances in 1922-23, and having passed a Vote on account of £50,000 for the period to the 6th December, 1922, recommend that the full Estimate of £1,803,305 for the financial year 1922-23 be adopted in due course by the Oireachtas."
Agreed.