I move:—
That Dáil Eireann is of opinion that legislation should be introduced as soon as possible to amend the Army Pensions Act, 1953, so as to enable all recipients of service medals to be eligible for the special allowance if their means are sufficiently low and thereby put an end to the present unsatisfactory position which renders ineligible all holders of medals whose applications for medals were not received prior to the 5th day of August, 1954.
I move this motion because, in the course of making representations on behalf of I.R.A. applicants over the last two years, I was surprised to find that, although a man had made an application for a service certificate, it was necessary in certain cases that the applicant should make application for a medal as well. These are the people in whom I am mainly interested in this motion. Take the case of a man who applies for a service certificate. He is awarded a pension and automatically receives a medal. If his case is turned down he has to make application again for the medal and if that application was not lodged before August 5th, 1954, he is not entitled to a special allowance.
This special allowance is a very important item and has become more important down the years. I think it was introduced first in 1946 and was improved in 1951, and again in 1953. This special allowance was one of the best things done for the I.R.A. since this House was established. This flaw in the Act is a hardship on a lot of people. Take a borderline case where a man applied for a pension as far back as 1946. I know cases where men applied as far back as 1934 after the first Act was introduced and who reapplied at different times and still no decision was given until after the 5th August, 1954. How are such men to know they would have to apply secondly? I think the House will agree with me that the man who had an application in for a pension would feel that he was worsening his case by application for the medal. I suppose it would have been an oversight by the Minister at the time, Deputy Traynor, that he did not allow that to happen.
When I found this out, I went to the present Minister and drew his attention to it. He told me that he was in complete agreement and that he himself, when the 1953 Bill was going through, asked the then Minister to leave it an open date. I have here what he said on that occasion. It is reported in Volume 140 of the Official Debates, column 1350, as follows:—
"General MacEoin: I think the Minister is to be congratulated for the effort he has made on behalf of the Old I.R.A. and their dependents. He has at the outset, in my opinion, taken steps that will expedite and speed up decisions."
The next part does not affect it.