Air Navigation and Transport (Amendment) Act, 1998

Superannuation schemes.

32.—(1) The company may prepare and submit to the Minister a scheme or schemes for the granting of superannuation benefits to or in respect of such members of the staff of the company or subsidiaries of the company (including the Chief Executive) as it may think fit, and such scheme shall, if approved by the Minister with the consent of the Minister for Finance, be carried out by the company in accordance with its terms.

(2) Every scheme to which subsection (1) relates shall fix the time and conditions of retirement for all persons to or in respect of whom superannuation benefits are payable under the scheme, and different times and conditions may be fixed in respect of different classes of persons.

(3) Every scheme under this section, including a scheme under this subsection, may be amended or revoked by a subsequent scheme prepared, submitted and approved in the like manner as a scheme to which subsection (1) relates.

(4) A scheme prepared and submitted by the company under subsection (3) shall, if approved by the Minister with the consent of the Minister for Finance, be carried out by the company in accordance with its terms.

(5) Nothing in this section shall be deemed to invalidate an existing scheme.

(6) A scheme amending or revoking an existing scheme shall not be carried out by the company unless it has been approved by the Minister with the consent of the Minister for Finance.

(7) No superannuation benefit shall be granted by the company nor shall any other arrangements be entered into by the company for the provision of such a benefit to or in respect of a member of the staff of the company or a subsidiary of the company otherwise than—

(a) in accordance with a scheme under this section or an existing scheme, or

(b) with the approval of the Minister given with the consent of the Minister for Finance.

(8) The company shall, on the commencement of a scheme under subsection (1), establish a fund (in this section referred to as the “new fund”), administered by trustees who shall be appointed by the company, from which superannuation benefits payable under such scheme shall be paid.

(9) On the commencement of a scheme under subsection (1) (in this section referred to as the “new scheme”)—

(a) those members and former members of the staff of the company or subsidiaries of the company who immediately before such commencement were members of the old scheme shall become and be members of the new scheme and shall cease to be members of the old scheme,

(b) an amount bearing the same proportion to the assets of the old scheme as, in the opinion of the trustees of the old scheme on the advice of the actuary of the old scheme, the liabilities under the old scheme—

(i) in respect of the members of the old scheme referred to in paragraph (a), and

(ii) in respect of deceased members,

bear to the total liabilities under the old scheme, shall be transferred by the said trustees from the old fund to the new fund, and

(c) any period of service by a person with the company or a subsidiary of the company which was a period of reckonable service for the purposes of the old scheme shall be regarded as a period of reckonable service for the purposes of the new scheme.

(10) Superannuation benefits granted under the new scheme to persons who immediately before the commencement of such scheme were members of the old scheme and the terms and conditions relating to those benefits shall not be less favourable to those persons than those to which they were entitled under the old scheme.

(11) (a) Where a dispute arises between the trustees of the old scheme and the company or other company participating in the old scheme as to the amount transferred from the old fund to the new fund under subsection (9)(b), or as to the manner in which such amount has been calculated, the matter may be referred to a person who shall be nominated by the parties to the dispute or, if they are unable to agree as to the person to be nominated for that purpose, to a person who shall be nominated by the Minister.

(b) The decision of a person nominated under paragraph (a) shall be final.

(12) The spouse, child or dependant of a deceased member who immediately before the commencement of the new scheme was entitled to receive superannuation benefits under the old scheme shall be entitled to receive superannuation benefits under the new scheme on terms and conditions not less favourable to such spouse, child or dependant than those applicable to him or her under the old scheme.

(13) If any dispute arises as to the claim of any person to, or the amount of, any superannuation benefit payable in pursuance of a scheme or schemes under this section, such dispute shall be submitted to the Minister who shall refer it to the Minister for Finance for determination by him or her.

(14) A scheme under this section shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the scheme is passed by either such House within the next 21 days on which that House has sat after the scheme is laid before it, the scheme shall be annulled accordingly without prejudice to anything previously done thereunder.

(15) The trustees of the old scheme shall, as soon as is practicable after the commencement of the new scheme but subject to the approval of the Minister with the consent of the Minister for Finance, make such amendments to the old scheme as they deem necessary arising out of the operation of this section.

(16) In this section—

“deceased member” means, subject to subsection (17), a deceased member of the old scheme who was a member of the staff of the company or a subsidiary of the company;

“existing scheme” means—

(a) the old scheme, or

(b) a scheme for the granting of superannuation benefits to or in respect of any members of the staff of Aer Rianta International cuideachta phoiblí theoranta or Great Southern Hotels Limited, in operation at the commencement of this Act, and includes, where the context so admits, a reference to that scheme as amended by a scheme to which subsection (6) relates,

as may be appropriate;

“the old fund” means the fund established in respect of the old scheme;

“the old scheme” means the scheme for the granting of superannuation benefits, to or in respect of any members of the staff of the company or a subsidiary of the company (other than Aer Rianta International cuideachta phoiblí theoranta or Great Southern Hotels Limited), in operation at the commencement of this Act and includes, where the context so admits, a reference to that scheme as amended by a scheme to which subsection (6) relates.

(17) In this section, a reference to former members of the staff of the company or subsidiaries of the company, or deceased members, shall not include a reference to such former members or deceased members, as the case may be, who after ceasing to be members of the staff of the company or a subsidiary of the company became and were members of the staff of a company, other than the company or a subsidiary of the company, participating in the old scheme.