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Amendment of Principal Act (new Part).
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10.—The Principal Act is hereby amended by the insertion after section 24 of the following Part:
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“PART V
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Severance payments to former holders of certain Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices
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Definitions for the purposes of Part V.
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25.—In this Part ‘operative date’, ‘pre-qualified person’ and ‘qualifying office’ have the meanings assigned to them by Part IV of this Act.
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Entitlement to severance allowance.
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26.—(1) Subject to the provisions of this Part, a person who ceases to hold a qualifying office on or after the operative date and who is not immediately appointed to another such office shall, if he is not a pre-qualified person, be entitled to a payment referred to subsequently in this Part as ‘a severance allowance’.
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(2) If a person who holds a qualifying office on the dissolution of Dáil Éireann next before the operative date ceases to hold the said office prior to the operative date and is not paid a pension under Part IV of this Act in respect of the period between such cesser and the operative date, then, for the purposes of this Part, such cesser shall be deemed to have occurred on the operative date.
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Certain persons ineligible for severance allowance.
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27.—A person who ceases to hold a qualifying office in order to take up a position to which he is appointed by the Government, or for which he is nominated by the Government for appointment, shall not be entitled to a severance allowance on foot of such cesser.
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Commencement and cesser of severance allowance.
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28.—Subject to section 30 of this Act, a person's entitlement to a severance allowance shall commence on the day following his cesser of office, and shall cease on the expiry of a period equal to the lesser of—
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(a) the period during which, immediately prior to such cesser, he has served in a qualifying office or offices without a break in such service, or
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(b) a period of 2 years,
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or, if earlier, on his appointment to a qualifying office or on his appointment to a position referred to in section 27 of this Act:
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Provided that a person may at any time apply in writing to the Minister for Finance for the cesser of the severance allowance payable to him, and if he so applies, his entitlement to such allowance shall cease with effect from such date as is specified in the application.
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Annual rate of severance allowance.
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29.—(1) The annual rate of a severance allowance shall be—
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(a) if the period during which the allowance is payable is not more than 6 months in duration, 75 per cent. of the relevant salary,
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(b) if the period during which the allowance is payable is more than 6 months and not more than 18 months in duration, 75 per cent. of the relevant salary for the first 6 months and 50 per cent. of the relevant salary for the remainder of that period, or
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(c) if the period during which the allowance is payable is more than 18 months in duration, 75 per cent. of the relevant salary for the first 6 months and 50 per cent. of the relevant salary for the next 12 months and 25 per cent. of the relevant salary for the remainder of that period.
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(2) In subsection (1) of this section ‘the relevant salary’ means—
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(a) if throughout the relevant period the person held the same qualifying office or a number of qualifying offices to which the same rate of salary was applicable, the salary for the time being appropriate to the office which the person held on the last day of such period, and
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(b) in any other case, the aggregate of the amounts obtained by the formula—
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in respect of each qualifying office held by the person during the relevant period, where S is the salary for the time being appropriate to such office, D is the number of days during which such office was so held and P is the total number of days in the relevant period, subject to a maximum of 730:
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Provided that, where a person has held the office of Attorney General at any time during the relevant period, the relevant salary in the case of such person shall be calculated as if the salary for the time being appropriate to the office of Attorney General was the annual sum payable for the time being by way of salary to a member of the Government other than the Taoiseach or the Tánaiste.
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(3) In subsection (2) of this section ‘the relevant period’ means the period referred to in paragraph (a) of section 28 of this Act or, in case such period exceeds 2 years in duration, the final 2 years of such period.
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Recalculation or resumption of severance allowance in certain circumstances.
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30.—(1) Where a person is entitled to a severance allowance in respect of a period of service in a qualifying office (referred to subsequently in this section as ‘the first term’), and that entitlement ceases on his appointment to a qualifying office for a further period (referred to subsequently in this section as ‘the second term’), he may, on the expiry of the second term, apply in writing to the Minister for Finance that his entitlement to a severance allowance in respect of the second term should be calculated as if the first and second terms had constituted an unbroken period of service, and if he so applies, his entitlement shall be so calculated, subject to an appropriate reduction in that entitlement, which reduction shall be prescribed by regulations made by the Minister for Finance, having regard to the amount of the severance allowance paid to him in respect of the first term.
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(2) If a person referred to in subsection (1) of this section does not make the application provided for in the said subsection (1), and the severance allowance payable to him in respect of the second term ceases to be paid on a date which is earlier than the date on which his entitlement to a severance allowance in respect of the first term would have ceased if he had not been appointed to a qualifying office for the second term, his severance allowance in respect of the first term shall be resumed with effect from the first day following the cesser of his severance allowance in respect of the second term, and shall be paid for such further period, and at such rate, as would have applied on the said first day if his entitlement in respect of the first term had not previously ceased.
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Special allowance for former Taoisigh.
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31.—(1) Where a person who has held the office of Taoiseach for a period of not less than 1 year is entitled to a severance allowance under this Part and his entitlement to such allowance ceases otherwise than on his appointment to a qualifying office, and
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(a) he has not then attained the age of 55 years, and
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(b) he has not applied for a discounted pension,such person shall thereupon become entitled to an allowance (referred to subsequently in this Part as ‘a special allowance’) at the rate of 25 per cent. of the annual sum payable for the time being by way of salary to the Taoiseach.
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(2) A special allowance under this section shall cease to be payable if the person concerned—
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(a) is appointed to a qualifying office, or
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(b) becomes entitled to a pension under Part IV of this Act, or
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(c) applies for a discounted pension under Part IV of this Act.
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Payment of allowances under Part V out of Central Fund.
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32.—Every allowance payable under this Part of this Act shall be granted by the Minister for Finance and shall be charged upon and payable out of the Central Fund or the growing produce thereof.”.
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