Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2014

Superannuation

29. (1) Subject to subsection (2), as soon as may be after the establishment day, the Commission shall prepare and submit to the Minister a scheme or schemes for the granting of superannuation benefits to or in respect of—

(a) persons who were accepted into its employment in accordance with section 40 , and

(b) such other persons as it considers appropriate, including—

(i) the person referred to in paragraph (b) of section 12 (1), and

(ii) persons who elect to become members of the staff of the Commission pursuant to section 24G (inserted by section 76 ) of the Act of 2007.

(2) A scheme prepared and submitted under this section shall not provide for the granting of superannuation benefits to or in respect of any person referred to in subsection (1) where the Single Public Service Pension Scheme applies to that person by virtue of Chapter 2 of Part 2 of the Act of 2012.

(3) Every scheme prepared and submitted under this section 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.

(4) The Commission may at any time prepare and submit to the Minister a scheme amending or revoking a scheme previously submitted and approved under this section.

(5) A scheme or amending scheme submitted to the Minister under this section shall, if approved by the Minister with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, be carried out by the Commission in accordance with its terms.

(6) (a) If any dispute arises as to the claim of any person to, or the amount of, any superannuation benefit pursuant to a scheme under this section, such dispute shall be submitted to such person and determined in such manner as may be specified in the scheme.

(b) A scheme under this section shall make provision for an appeal from a determination of a person referred to in paragraph (a) to such other person as may be specified in the scheme.

(7) A superannuation benefit shall not be granted by the Commission to or in respect of any persons who are members of a scheme under this section and no other arrangement shall be entered into for the provision of any superannuation benefit to such persons on their ceasing to hold office, other than in accordance with such scheme or schemes submitted and approved under this section or an arrangement approved by the Minister and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.

(8) (a) Subject to subsection (12), and save in accordance with a collective agreement negotiated with a recognised trade union or staff association and approved by the Minister with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, a scheme under this section shall, as respects a person referred to in paragraph (a) of subsection (1), provide for the granting to or in respect of him or her of superannuation benefits upon and subject to such terms and conditions as are not less favourable and not more favourable to him or her than the terms and conditions in relation to the grant of such benefits that applied to him or her immediately before the establishment day.

(b) Any period of service by a person as a member of the staff of a dissolved body which was a period of reckonable service for the purposes of a scheme for the granting of superannuation benefits to or in respect of members of the staff of the dissolved body shall be regarded as a period of reckonable service for the purposes of any scheme under this section.

(9) Subject to subsection (12), where, in the period beginning on the establishment day and ending immediately before the commencement of a scheme under this section, a superannuation benefit falls due for payment to or in respect of a person who was accepted into the employment of the Commission in accordance with section 40 to whom the Single Public Service Pension Scheme does not apply by virtue of Chapter 2 of Part 2 of the Act of 2012, the benefit shall be calculated and paid by the Commission in accordance with such schemes, arrangements or enactments in relation to superannuation, as applied to the person immediately before the establishment day and, for that purpose, his or her pensionable service with the Commission shall be aggregated with his or her previous pensionable service.

(10) Subject to subsection (12), every scheme or arrangement in relation to superannuation administered by a dissolved body immediately prior to the establishment day shall—

(a) on and after the establishment day, and

(b) only in so far as the schemes or arrangements concerned relate to former members of the staff (other than those to whom subsection (1) or (2) refers) of the dissolved bodies, including those who are deceased,

continue in force as if made by the Commission.

(11) Subject to subsection (12), and notwithstanding the repeal of section 44 of the Act of 2002 by section 7 (1)(c), a scheme made under paragraph 5 of the Schedule to the Competition Act 1991 continued in force by subsection (7) of the said section 44, and in force immediately before the establishment day, shall continue in force on and after that day.

(12) Paragraph (a) of subsection (8) and subsections (9), (10) and (11) shall not apply in relation to a provision of a scheme or arrangement in relation to superannuation in respect of which the consent or approval of the Minister for Finance, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform or any other Minister of the Government was required by or under any enactment but not obtained.

(13) The Minister shall cause every scheme submitted and approved under this section to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is approved, and if either such House, within the next 21 days on which that House sits after the scheme is laid before it, passes a resolution annulling the scheme, the scheme shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to anything previously done thereunder.

(14) In this section—

“Act of 2012” means the Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Act 2012 ;

“superannuation benefit” means a pension, gratuity or other allowance payable on resignation, retirement or death.