I move that this Bill be now now read a Second Time. The present Bill deals principally with the cases of certain officers of the Ordnance Survey who were discharged from their employment during the war of 1914-18. If these officers had joined the British Army at the time their posts in the Ordnance Survey would have been kept open for them, and the period of their military service would have reckoned for superannuation purposes. When they failed to join the British Army they were discharged from the Ordnance Survey with the pensions or gratuities to which their service entitled them. They were later reinstated in our service and certified under the Superannuation Act, 1923, or the Superannuation Act, 1936, but as their service prior to discharge had already been reckoned for pension or gratuity, it could not be reckoned again for pension under our superannuation legislation. Power is now being taken in this Act to aggregate this service with the service which the officers are entitled to reckon for pension under the Superannuation Acts, but credit will be taken, in determining the superannuation to be granted to them, for the pensions or gratuities awarded to them on discharge from the British Civil Service. This will place them in the same position financially as the other victimised civil servants provided for by the Superannuation Acts, 1923 and 1936, who reckon their service for pension on a continuous basis from the date of their first employment in a pensionable capacity in the British Civil Service. The provisions will apply to officers who have retired before the date of the passing of the Bill as well as to those officers who are still serving. Any pensions or gratuities granted to retired officers will be reassessed with effect from the date of their retirement.
Assistants in the Ordnance Survey are required to serve 15 years in an unestablished capacity before becoming established. Half this period may be reckoned for pension. The provisions of this Bill will also effect that service in the Ordnance Survey prior to discharge may be reckoned towards the 15 years' unestablished service necessary to qualify for establishment. Hitherto, this service had not been counted towards the qualifying period as the award of pension or gratuity by the British authorities was regarded as destroying all entitlement in respect of the service covered by the award. Most of the officers concerned were established after the expiration of 15 years from the date of discharge from the British service. A few, however, failed to secure establishment on account of age or ill-health. If they had not been discharged from the British service, they would, in the normal course, have been established at an earlier date, when considerations of age and ill-health were not present. It is now proposed to confer on them the entitlement to pension which they would have had if they had not been discharged from the British service and had been established at the normal time.
Apart from the Ordnance Survey officers, this Bill deals with the case of an officer who retired on pension from the British Civil Service as an alternative to taking the oath of allegiance, and who was subsequently reinstated in the Irish Civil Service and certified under the Superannuation and Pensions Act, 1923. The officer is in the same position as the Ordnance Survey officers in that the grant of a pension to her by the British authorities has debarred the reckoning of her British Civil Service for a pension from Irish funds. It is proposed to treat her in the same way as the Ordnance Survey officers, namely, to reckon all her service for pension and to take credit for the amount of the British superannuation award.
When the British meterological stations in Ireland were transferred to the Government in 1937, a few established officers who were serving at Valentia Observatory were transferred to the Irish Civil Service. An undertaking was given to aggregate their service prior to transfer with their subsequent service for pension on final retirement, and provision to this end has been made in the Bill.
In connection with the recovery from the funds of various local authorities of the expenses incurred by the Local Appointments Commissioners in carrying into effect the provisions of the Local Authorities (Officers and Employees) Act, 1926, some doubt has arisen as regards the inclusion in such "Expenses" of a contribution towards superannuation liability arising in respect of staff employed on the work of the commission. In the normal course, repayment for services rendered includes a contribution towards the cost of pension or other superannuation benefits in respect of officers engaged in providing the services, and provision to this end has already been made in a number of statutes. It is desired to include in this Bill a general provision to secure that in all appropriate cases a charge for superannuation liability may be included as part of the expenses of services rendered by the State, where the cost of such services is being repaid. The expenses of carrying the Bill into effect will be met by moneys to be provided by the Oireachtas.
This Bill will give effect to a promise I made to Deputy Cosgrave, I think, more than once, that I would look after certain people, particularly in the Ordnance Survey who, owing to their political action and political views, were claimed to be victimised. Those who remained in the service, or those who joined the British Army from the Ordnance Survey staff, were in a better position eventually than those who, for political reasons, refused to join the British Army in the 1914-18 period. Deputy Cosgrave pressed their case several times here on me. I think that he might have looked after them himself when he was in office, but he did not do so.
