Oireachtas (Allowances To Members) and Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices (Amendment) Act, 1992

Ministerial pensions and secretarial pensions.

7.—The Principal Act is hereby amended by the insertion after section 13 of the following sections:

“Ministerial pensions and secretarial pensions.

13A.—(1) This section shall apply to—

(a) any person who, on the operative date—

(i) has not previously served in a qualifying office, or

(ii) has served in a qualifying office, or in a number of such offices, for less than 1,095 days,

(b) any person who—

(i) is on the operative date a member of either House of the Oireachtas or a representative in the European Parliament or is appointed as Attorney General on that date or who, on the last day on which Dáil Éireann met prior to that date—

(I) held a qualifying office, or

(II) was a member of Dáil Éireann and had previously held the office of Taoiseach,

and

(ii) on or prior to the operative date has completed not less than 1,095 days' service in a qualifying office, or in a number of such offices, and

(iii) not later than 3 months after the operative date—

(I) elects, in such a manner as the Minister for Finance may determine, that this section should apply in his case, or

(II) dies and has not so elected,

and

(c) any person, other than a person referred to in paragraph (b) of this subsection, who—

(i) prior to the operative date has completed not less than 1,095 days' service in a qualifying office, or in a number of such offices, and

(ii) after the operative date, becomes a member of either House of the Oireachtas or becomes a representative in the European Parliament or is appointed as Attorney General, and

(iii) who, not later than 3 months after the date on which he becomes a member of either such House or becomes a representative in the European Parliament or the date of such appointment, as appropriate—

(I) elects, in such a manner as the Minister for Finance may determine, that this section should apply in his case, or

(II) dies and has not so elected:

Provided that this section shall not apply to—

(a) a person who satisfies the conditions set out in subparagraphs (b) (i) and (b) (ii), or in subparagraphs (c) (i) and (c) (ii), of this subsection and who, within the period of 3 months referred to in subparagraph (b) (iii) or subparagraph (c) (iii) of this subsection, as appropriate, elects, in such a manner as the Minister for Finance shall determine, that this section should not apply in his case, or

(b) a deceased person referred to in subparagraph (b) (iii) (II) or subparagraph (c) (iii) (II) of this subsection, if the amount of a pension payable under section 20 of this Act to the widow or widower of that person would thereby be reduced.

(2) With effect from the operative date or, in the case of a person to whom this section applies by virtue of paragraph (c) of subsection (1) of this section, the date referred to in subparagraph (iii) of the said paragraph (c), sections 14, 16 and 17 of this Act shall cease to apply to any person to whom this section applies and any pension in payment to such person pursuant to the said sections 14, 16 and 17 shall be discontinued.

(3) Subject to subsection (7) of this section—

(a) a person to whom this section applies and who on ceasing to hold a qualifying office has completed not less than 3 years of ministerial service shall, on such cesser, be entitled to a ministerial pension, and

(b) any other person to whom this section applies and who on ceasing to hold a qualifying office has completed not less than 3 years of secretarial service shall, on such cesser, be entitled to a secretarial pension.

(4) For the purposes of this section—

(a) the number of years of a person's ministerial service shall be taken to be the result obtained by dividing by 365 the aggregate of—

(i) the number of days during which the person held a ministerial office,

and, if the number of such days is not less than 1,095,

(ii) half the number of days, if any, during which the person held a qualifying office other than a ministerial office,

(b) the number of years of a person's secretarial service shall be taken to be the result obtained by dividing by 365 the total number of days during which the person held a qualifying office:

Provided that any fraction of a year in the result obtained under paragraph (a) or (b) of this subsection shall be disregarded.

(5) (a) A pension under this section shall be at the rate of 25 per cent. of the appropriate salary, plus 5 per cent. of the appropriate salary for each additional year of service in excess of 3 years, subject to a maximum of 7 such additional years.

(b) In this subsection ‘the appropriate salary’ means:

(i) as respects a ministerial pension—

(I) in case the person concerned has held the office of Taoiseach, the annual sum payable for the time being by way of salary to the Taoiseach,

(II) in case the person concerned has held the office of Tánaiste for a period of not less than 3 years, the annual sum payable for the time being by way of salary to the Tánaiste,

(III) in case the person concerned has held the office of Tánaiste for a period of less than 3 years, the amount arrived at by the formula

D

_

T

× S1 +

(T−D)

_____

T

× S2

where D is the number of days during which the person served as Tánaiste, T is the total number of days during which the person served in a ministerial office (subject to a maximum of 3,650 days), S1 is the annual sum payable for the time being by way of salary to the Tánaiste and S2 is 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,

(IV) in any other case, 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,

(ii) as respects a secretarial pension—

(I) in case the person concerned—

(A) held a ministerial office on or after the 1st day of January, 1978, or

(B) has served for not less than 3 years in a qualifying office, or in a number of such offices, other than an office which became a qualifying office by virtue of subsection 5 (1) of the Oireachtas (Allowances to Members) and Ministerial, Parliamentary and Judicial Offices (Amendment) Act, 1983 ,

the annual sum payable for the time being by way of salary to the holder of the office of Minister of State,

(II) in any other case, the annual sum payable for the time being by way of salary in respect of the last qualifying office, other than a ministerial office, held by the person concerned.

(c) In this subsection ‘service’ means ministerial service in the case of a person who is entitled to a ministerial pension and secretarial service in the case of a person who is entitled to a secretarial pension.

(6) A person shall not be entitled to a pension under this section with effect from a date which is earlier than the operative date.

(7) (a) Where a person who is entitled to a pension under this section applies to the Minister for Finance therefor, such pension shall commence to be payable—

(i) in case he so applies not later than 6 months after the date on which he became so entitled, as and from that date, and

(ii) in any other case, as and from the date of his application.

(b) Subject to paragraphs (c) and (d) of this subsection, a person shall not be entitled to a pension under this section if—

(i) he is in receipt of a severance allowance under Part V of this Act, or

(ii) he has not attained the age of 55 years.

(c) Subparagraph (ii) of paragraph (b) of this subsection shall not apply to a person in respect of whom it is established to the satisfaction of the Minister for Finance that he is precluded from earning a livelihood by reason of permanent physical or mental disability.

(d) Notwithstanding the said subparagraph (ii), a person who has attained the age of 50 years and who, but for the said subparagraph (ii), would be entitled to a pension under this section may, on application to the Minister for Finance therefor, be paid such pension—

(i) in case he applies not later than 6 months after the date on which, but for the said subparagraph (ii), he would have been entitled to such pension, as and from that date, and

(ii) in any other case, as and from the date of his application,

but such pension (referred to subsequently in this section as ‘a discounted pension’) shall be reduced by such amount as, having regard to the person's age on the date on which the pension commences to be paid, shall be prescribed by regulations made from time to time by the Minister for Finance.

(e) Where a discounted pension is paid to a person, and such pension ceases to be payable pursuant to subsection (1) of section 23 of this Act, then, if the person concerned subsequently becomes entitled to a pension under this section, the provisions of paragraph (d) of this subsection shall continue to apply in respect of that portion of the pension which relates to service given prior to his application to the Minister for Finance under the said paragraph (d).

(f) Subject to subsection (8) of this section, the amount of a pension or a discounted pension under this section shall be reduced by 50 per cent. during any period during which the person to whom it is payable is a member of either House of the Oireachtas or a representative in the European Parliament.

(8) Subsection (7) (f) of this section shall not apply to a person who has held the office of Taoiseach.

Special pension arrangements for pre-qualified persons.

13B.—(1) This section applies to any person who is a pre-qualified person and who holds a qualifying office on or after the operative date.

(2) As and from the operative date, section 14 or section 16 of this Act, as appropriate, shall not apply to a person to whom this section applies in respect of service given by him after that date.

(3) In this section, ‘original pension’, in relation to a person to whom this section applies, means the pension to which that person was entitled under section 14 or section 16 of this Act, as appropriate, on the operative date, or, if the person held a qualifying office on that date, the pension to which he would have been so entitled if he had ceased to hold office on that date.

(4) Subject to subsection (7) of this section, a person to whom this section applies who ceases to hold a qualifying office after the operative date shall be entitled to receive, in addition to his original pension, a further pension (referred to subsequently in this section as ‘a supplementary pension’).

(5) (a) The amount of a supplementary pension shall be—

(i) in the case of a person whose original pension is a ministerial pension, 5 per cent. of the appropriate salary (within the meaning of section 13A of this Act) multiplied by the number of relevant years,

(ii) in the case of a person whose original pension is a secretarial pension and who on ceasing to hold a qualifying office after the operative date would, but for subsection (2) of this section, have been entitled to a ministerial pension under section 14 of this Act, an amount equal to the difference between—

(A) the amount of the ministerial pension which would then be payable to the person if such pension was calculated in accordance with subsections (4) and (5) of section 13A of this Act, and

(B) the amount of the person's original pension,

(iii) in the case of a person, other than a person referred to in subparagraph (ii) of this paragraph, whose original pension is a secretarial pension, 5 per cent. of the appropriate salary (within the meaning aforesaid) multiplied by the number of relevant years.

(b) The number of relevant years for the purposes of paragraph (a) of this subsection shall be taken to be—

(i) in the case of a person to whom subparagraph (i) of the said paragraph (a) applies, the result obtained by dividing by 365 the aggregate of:

(A) the number of days, if any, during which such person held a ministerial office after the operative date, and

(B) one-half of the number of days, if any, during which such person held a secretarial office after the operative date, and

(C) the number of days, if any, of such person's pensionable service (within the meaning of section 14 of this Act) which were, or would have been, disregarded in the calculation of such person's original pension,

(ii) in the case of a person to whom subparagraph (iii) of the said paragraph (a) applies, the result obtained by dividing by 365 the aggregate of:

(A) the number of days during which such person held a qualifying office after the operative date, and

(B) the number of days, if any, of such person's pensionable service (within the meaning of section 16 of this Act) which were, or would have been, disregarded in the calculation of such person's original pension:

Provided that—

(I) any fraction of a year in either of the results aforesaid shall be disregarded, and

(II) in any case where the aggregate of the number of relevant years as defined above and the number of years of pensionable service which were or would have been reckoned in the calculation of the original pension of the person concerned exceeds 10, the number of relevant years shall be taken to be the result obtained by subtracting from 10 the number of such years of pensionable service.

(6) As and from the operative date, section 17 of this Act shall, in the case of a person to whom this section applies, apply only in respect of that person's original pension.

(7) Subsections (7) and (8) of section 13A of this Act shall apply in respect of a supplementary pension as if such supplementary pension were a pension under the said section 13A.”.