asked the Minister for Local Government the extent to which service with the Defence Forces is allowed for superannuation purposes in respect of officers and servants of local authorities.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Local Authority Superannuation.
26.
This is a matter for the local authority concerned having regard to the superannuation legislation applicable to the particular case subject to the usual right of appeal.
In general, a pensionable officer or pensionable servant of a local authority who was given a period of leave of absence to join the Defence Forces during the Emergency can reckon such period as pensionable local authority service. Similarly, a pensionable officer or pensionable servant of a local authority who was or is given a period of leave of absence with pay—or without pay in certain circumstances—for annual training with the Defence Forces or the Reserve Defence Forces or who was called out on service with the Reserve Defence Forces First Line can reckon such period as pensionable local authority service.
A pensionable servant of a local authority who had service with the Defence Forces during the Emergency and who had some service days with a local authority before and after the Emergency can reckon such Emergency Defence Forces service for superannuation purposes in the same proportion as his local authority service is now reckonable in the three financial years preceding and the three financial years succeeding his service with the Defence Forces.
I am having examined at present the question of providing that not more than two years of Emergency Defence Force service may be aggregated with subsequent local authority service for superannuation purposes in cases where such survice is not now reckonable or where the existing entitlements of the persons concerned are not more favourable.
With regard to emergency service two years reckonable service for pension purposes is allowed to members of the Defence Forces. In certain cases civil servants will have full reckonable service for their period of emergency service. The Parliamentary Secretary should equate service in the Army with service in the Civil Service.
The implementation of a provision for local authority officers and servants on lines similar to the provision for civil servants would require an amendment of the Local Government (Superannuation) Act, 1956. and Part VIII of the Mental Treatment Act 1945.