S.I. No. 373/1998 - Houses of the Oireachtas (Members) Pensions (Amendment) (No. 2) Scheme, 1998

S.I. No. 373 of 1998.

HOUSES OF THE OIREACHTAS (MEMBERS) PENSIONS (AMENDMENT) (NO. 2) SCHEME, 1998

I, CHARLIE McCREEVY, Minister for Finance, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 6A(4) (inserted by section 4 of the Oireachtas (Allowances to Members) and Ministerial, Parliamentary and Judicial Offices (Amendment) Act, 1983 (No. 32 of 1983)) of the Oireachtas (Allowances to Members) Act, 1938 (No. 34 of 1938)), hereby make the following scheme:

1. (1) This Scheme may be cited as the Houses of the Oireachtas (Members) Pensions (Amendment) (No. 2) Scheme, 1998.

(2) This Scheme shall be deemed to have come into operation on the 7th day of April, 1998.

2. In this Scheme "the 1997 Scheme" means the Houses of the Oireachtas (Members) Pensions (Amendment) Scheme, 1997 ( S.I. No. 212 of 1997 ).

3. The 1997 scheme is hereby amended—

(a) in subclause (1) of Clause 2, by the substitution for the definition of "additional allowance" of the following definitions:

"`the Act of 1998' means the Oireachtas (Allowances to Members) and Ministerial, Parliamentary, Judicial and Court Offices (Amendment) Act, 1998 (No. 5 of 1998);

`additional allowance' means an allowance —

(a) payable to a member pursuant to section 3 or 4 of the Act of 1998,

or

(b) which was payable pursuant to section 2 or 3 of the Oireachtas (Allowances to Members) (Amendment) Act, 1994 (No. 21 of 1994) prior to the repeal of those sections;",

(b) by the insertion after Clause 4 of the following clause:

"4A. Where a member is paid one or more amounts by way of allowances (referred to herein as "rapporteur allowances") out of allocations made under section 5 of the Act of 1998, these may be treated as if they were additional allowances for the purposes of this scheme, subject to the following adjustments —

(a) the Trustees (or a person acting on their behalf) shall determine appropriate accounting periods not exceeding one year and the amount of all rapporteur allowances paid to the member in any accounting period shall be aggregated, and the total thereof shall be treated as if it had been an additional allowance, payable to the member, in respect of a single position which he or she held for the length of the accounting period, at the annual rate of

(where T is the total amount so calculated, and P is the length of the accounting period in days), and this will be referred to as the 'notional additional allowance',

and

(b) where, for the purposes of this scheme, it is necessary to use the rate at which an additional allowance is payable to the current holder of a position for the purposes of calculating a pension or gratuity, the relevant rate in the case of a person who had been in receipt of a rapporteur allowance shall be deemed to be the amount of the notional additional allowance held by the individual concerned in respect of a particular accounting period, uprated by reference to the percentage change in the basic salary of a member of the relevant House of the Oireachtas since the end of the accounting period during which the position was held, save where the Trustees at their discretion and with the consent of the Minister, determine that some other basis for the adjustment of pensions payable shall be used.",

(c) by the insertion after "the new or the old Scheme" in subclause (1) of Clause 5 of "is increased", and

(d) by the insertion after subclause (2) of Clause 5 of the following subclause:

"(3) Where the additional allowance or allowances, by reference to which a pension payable under the new scheme or the old scheme is or are increased under this scheme, and where the amount of such additional allowance is reduced in respect of the current holder of the relevant position, or where in the opinion of the Trustees it is no longer possible to determine the appropriate rate of any additional allowance or notional allowance to be used for the calculation of any pension under this scheme, the Trustees may at their discretion, with the consent of the Minister, determine the basis on which the amount of such a pension may be adjusted from time to time or the amount of such adjustment.".

GIVEN under my Official Seal, this 2nd day of October, 1998.

CHARLIE McCREEVY

Minister for Finance