asked the Minister for Finance if he will state (a) the number of ex-civil servants serving at the date of the Treaty who are now in receipt of pensions; (b) the number of such persons who retired under Article X of the Treaty; (c) the number who retired under the provisions of the Civil Service (Compensation) Act, 1929; (d) the number in receipt of pensions based on emoluments existing at and prior to 1939; (e) the number in receipt of pensions based on emoluments and increased stabilised cost-of-living figure of 210; and (f) further, if he will give his reasons for the differentiation accorded to pensioners under (d) and (e).
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Superannuated Civil Servants.
As the reply contains a number of figures, I would ask the Deputy to allow me to circulate it with the Official Report.
Following is the reply:—
The information asked for by the Deputy is as follows:—
(a) 2,903 ex-civil servants serving at the date of the Treaty are now in receipt either of normal superannuation or Article X compensation.
(b) and (c) Of that number 1,164 are in receipt of compensation under Article X of the Treaty. Separate figures are not given for categories (b) and (c) as all the individuals concerned in fact retired with Article X compensation and the Civil Service (Transferred Officers) Compensation Act, 1929, merely provided machinery for the better operating of Article X of the Treaty.
(d) 883 ex-civil servants who were serving at the date of the Treaty are in receipt of normal superannuation based on emoluments existing at and prior to the 31st December, 1939.
(e) 748 ex-civil servants who were serving at the date of the Treaty are in receipt of normal superannuation based on emoluments and increased stabilised cost-of-living figure of 210.
As regards (f) of the Deputy's question the differentiation in treatment between officers in categories (d) and (e) is due to the following: officers in category (d) received their full entitlement, viz., pensions based on salary and unstabilised bonus whereas those in (e) were affected in their pensions by the stabilisation of bonus. When the Government decided to raise the bonus point for serving officers they considered it would be inequitable that those officers whose pensions had been affected by stabilisation should in their pensions not receive the benefit of the adjusted bonus figure and they, therefore, decided that the pensions of these officers should as from the 1st January, 1945, be related to the actual cost-of-living figure obtaining at the date of retirement, 205 or 210 whichever was appropriate. Of course any person retiring subsequent to the 31st December, 1944, was in receipt of bonus related to a cost-of-living figure of 210 and the bonus portion of his pension was automatically calculated on that figure.