Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 9 Mar 1993

Vol. 427 No. 6

Written Answers. - Defence Forces Pension Schemes.

Liz McManus

Ceist:

175 Ms McManus asked the Minister for Defence if he will give a commitment to the retrospective application of the revised schemes for pension and retirement gratuities for members of the noncommissioned ranks of the Permanent Defence Force in accordance with the recommendations of the report of the commission on remuneration and conditions of service in the Defence Forces, with particular reference to personnel who retired on reaching the maximum retirement age of 60 in the interim period between the publication of the report and the introduction of the revised schemes.

Minister for Defence (Mr. Andrews)

Apart from its recommendation that the Defence Forces pension schemes should be amended immediately to provide for the reckoning of military service allowance in calculating superannuation benefits (which has been implemented), the Commission on Remuneration and Conditions of Service in the Defence Forces considered that any further changes in the superannuation arrangements should be introduced only in the context of a fundamental revision of those schemes.

The commission recognised that such a revision would be a task of considerable technical complexity and would involve detailed consultations and discussions with both the military authorities and the representative associations. Thus, the revision is a long term project and will take a considerable time to complete.

The commission recommended that persons joining the Defence Forces after the introduction of new pension schemes would automatically become members of those schemes but that personnel serving at the time of their introduction should be given the option of joining the new schemes or of remaining in the existing schemes.