Local Government Act, 1933

Pensionable service of certain classes of officers.

5.—(1) Whenever an officer of a local authority resigned or was dismissed from the service of such local authority after the 1st day of January, 1922, and before the 9th day of March, 1932, and at any time subsequent to such resignation or dismissal either was appointed (whether by way of re-instatement or by way of new appointment) to and employed in the same or another pensionable office by the said local authority, or was appointed to and employed in a pensionable office by another local authority, and the Minister, within twelve months after such appointment or the passing of this Act, whichever is the later, certifies in writing under his hand that such officer so resigned or was so dismissed for political reasons, such officer shall be entitled, for the purpose of calculating the amount of any pension to which he may become entitled under the Principal Act or any other enactment—

(a) to reckon as pensionable service the period between the date on which he so resigned or was dismissed (as the case may be) and the date on which he was subsequently so appointed as aforesaid by a local authority, and

(b) where his service before he so resigned or was dismissed was service under a local authority whose functional area was outside the area now comprised in Saorstát Eireann and was service which would have been pensionable service if the functional area of such local authority had been within Saorstát Eireann, to reckon such service as pensionable service, and

(c) to reckon as one period of continuous pensionable service the following periods that is to say, his pensionable service before he so resigned or was dismissed (as the case may be), the said period mentioned in paragraph (a) of this sub-section, and his pensionable service subsequent to that period.

(2) Where an officer becomes entitled by virtue of this section to reckon as pensionable service a period intervening between his resignation or dismissal from the service of one local authority and his appointment to a pensionable office by another local authority, such proportion of that period as the Minister shall direct shall, for the purpose of determining the liability for any pension to which such officer may become entitled under the Principal Act, be deemed to be service in the employment of the local authority from whose service such officer so resigned or was dismissed, and the remainder of the said period shall be deemed to be service in the employment of the local authority by whom he was so appointed at the expiration of the said period.

(3) Where an officer has become entitled by virtue of this section to reckon as part of a period of continuous pensionable service a period of service under a local authority the functional area of which was outside the area now comprised in Saorstát Eireann (whether such period of continuous pensionable service does or does not also include by virtue of this section a period between the termination of such service and his being appointed to a pensionable office under another local authority) and such officer is awarded a pension or gratuity, the Minister shall, out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas, refund to the local authority by which such pension or gratuity is paid, such proportion of such pension or gratuity as the Minister, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, shall determine to be attributable to the service of such officer under a local authority whose functional area was outside the area now comprised in Saorstát Eireann, and in such case section 47 of the Principal Act and sub-section (2) of this section shall not apply.

(4) No certificate for the purposes of this section shall be given by the Minister for Education without the consent of the Minister for Finance.

(5) In this section—

(a) the expression “local authority” shall in relation to any act, event, or thing which was done or occurred before the 30th day of April, 1923, be construed as including any local authority whose functional area was then situated anywhere in Ireland, and

(b) references to resignation from a service shall be construed as including leaving such service otherwise than by dismissal, and

(c) all words and expressions to which a particular meaning is assigned by section 42 of the Principal Act have the meaning so assigned.