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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 11 Nov 1999

Vol. 510 No. 5

Written Answers. - Pension Provisions.

Noel Ahern

Ceist:

100 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for Public Enterprise if she will examine and amend section 14 of the Transport Act, 1958, and section 17 of the Great Northern Railways Act, 1958, and allow provision for small redundancy compensation payments to be bought out rather than continued to be paid weekly in view of the fact several dozen pensioners are receiving payments of less than £1 or £2 per week. [23126/99]

A special provision was made in section 15 of the Transport Act, 1958, whereby the cost of the redundancy compensation for those employees who left under the redundancy compensation provisions of this Act and the Great Northern Railways Act, 1958, during the period 16 July 1958 – the date the Transport Act was passed – to 31 March 1964, would be paid by the Exchequer.

Many of the employees in question had short service and were on low rates of pay resulting in their weekly compensation payments being small, that is, one sixtieth of their remuneration for each year of qualifying service, reducing to one eightieth for each year when they reached age 65.

CIE administers the redundancy compensation payments scheme and the funds are recouped on a quarterly basis from my Department. Total estimated expenditure on the scheme for this year amounts to £24,000. The recipients are encouraged to agree monthly or six monthly payments and I am informed that many of them have done so. However, CIE is still making a number of weekly payments of less than £5.

The question of reducing the administrative work associated with the scheme and providing recipients with alternative options such as payment of a lump sum determined by an actuary has been raised with CIE and I have asked the company to submit proposals to me for alternative arrangements for these payments as soon as possible.

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