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20.—(1) This section applies in respect of the following deceased persons:
(a) a person who was holding a qualifying office at the time of death;
(b) a person who held such an office at any time before the time of death.
(2) The surviving spouse of a deceased person in respect of whom this section applies is, subject to this section, entitled to receive a surviving spouse's pension of an amount equal to half the amount of the pension (if any) to which the person—
(a) was entitled at the time of death, or
(b) would have been so entitled if the person was not the holder of a qualifying office and had reached 50 years of age.
(3) A person is no longer entitled to a surviving spouse's pension if the person remarries.
(4) If the surviving spouse of a deceased person who held a qualifying office—
(a) does not qualify for a spouse's pension because the person's pensionable service was not sufficient, or
(b) qualifies for such a pension but of an amount smaller than it would have been had the person's pensionable service been 3 years,
that spouse is entitled to receive a surviving spouse's pension of the same amount as that which would have been payable had the deceased person's pensionable service been 3 years.
(5) A surviving spouse's pension is not, for the purposes of section 8(1) of the
Military Service Pensions Act, 1924
, or section 20(1) of the
Military Service Pensions Act, 1934
, to be regarded as a pension or allowance that is payable out of public money.
(6) If a child of a deceased person in respect of whom this section applies has not reached 21 years of age, the child is entitled to receive—
(a) if a relevant parent of the child survives the deceased person and paragraph (b) does not apply, a child's allowance at the rate of £1,706.25 per year, or
(b) if a relevant parent of the child survives the deceased person but dies before the child has reached 21 years of age, a child's allowance at the rate of £2,843.75 per year but only from the date of the parent's death, or
(c) if no relevant parent of the child survives the deceased person, a child's allowance at the rate of £2,843.75 per year.
(7) A child who marries before reaching 21 years of age ceases to be entitled to a child's allowance under this section.
(8) A surviving spouse's pension, or a child's allowance, in respect of a deceased person in respect of whom this section applies becomes payable—
(a) if an application for payment of the pension or allowance is made within 6 months after the date of the person's death, on and from the day following that date, or
(b) if an application for payment is made at any other time, on and from the date on which the application is made.
However, if a person whose entitlement to such a pension or an allowance arose on the commencement of this section applies in writing to the Minister for Finance for payment, the pension or allowance is to be paid on and from such date (being a date not earlier than the date of that commencement and not later than the date of the application) as the Minister determines in writing.
(9) In this section—
‘adopted child’ means a child who is—
(a) adopted under the Adoption Acts, 1952 to 1998, or
(b) the subject of a foreign adoption (within the meaning of
section 1
of the
Adoption Act, 1991
) that is deemed to have been effected by a valid adoption order made under the Adoption Acts, 1952 to 1998;
‘child’ includes a step-child and an adopted child;
‘parent’ includes step-parent and adoptive parent;
‘pension’, when used without qualification, means a pension that is either a ministerial pension or a secretarial pension and, in the case of a secretarial pension, includes any amount by which the pension is increased under section 13E;
‘relevant commencement date’ means the date on which
section 15
of the Ministerial, Parliamentary and Judicial Offices and Oireachtas Members (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2001, commences;
‘relevant parent’ in relation to a child, means a parent—
(a) who is or was entitled to a surviving spouse's pension under this section, or
(b) who would have been entitled to such a pension had the parent not died.”
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