Irish Sports Council Act, 1999

Superannuation of staff.

23.—(1) As soon as practicable after its establishment, the Council shall prepare and submit to the Minister a scheme or schemes for the granting of superannuation benefits on retirement or death to or in respect of such members of its staff as the Council thinks fit.

(2) Every superannuation scheme 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) The Council may at any time prepare and submit to the Minister a scheme amending a superannuation scheme previously approved under this section.

(4) If a superannuation scheme is approved by the Minister with the concurrence of the Minister for Finance, the scheme shall be carried out by the Council in accordance with its terms.

(5) Superannuation benefits granted under this section to persons who on the establishment day transferred to and became members of the Council's staff under section 22 (4), and the terms and conditions relating to those benefits, shall not be less favourable to those persons than those to which they were entitled immediately before that day.

(6) 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 transferred under section 22 (4) to the Council's staff—

(a) the benefit shall be calculated by the Council in accordance with such scheme, or such enactments relating to superannuation, as applied to the person immediately before the establishment day, and

(b) for that purpose, the person's pensionable service with the Council shall be aggregated with his or her previous pensionable service and shall be paid by the Council.

(7) No superannuation benefit shall be granted by the Council to or in respect of any of its staff who are members of a superannuation scheme, nor shall any other arrangement be entered into for the provision of a superannuation benefit to such persons on ceasing to hold office, except in accordance with a superannuation scheme or schemes approved under this section or with the consent of the Minister and the Minister for Finance.

(8) Any dispute that arises as to the claim of any person to, or the amount of, any superannuation benefit payable pursuant to a superannuation scheme shall be submitted to the Minister who shall refer the dispute to the Minister for Finance, whose decision shall be final.

(9) The Minister shall cause every superannuation scheme approved under this section to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as practicable after its approval.

(10) If either House, within the next 21 days on which that House has sat after the superannuation scheme is laid before it, passes a resolution annulling that scheme, it shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

(11) In this section—

“superannuation benefits” means pensions, gratuities and other allowances payable on resignation, retirement or death;

“superannuation scheme” means a scheme submitted under subsection (1) or (3).