Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005

Superannuation of staff of Authority.

56.—(1) The Authority shall prepare and submit to the Minister a scheme or schemes for the granting of superannuation benefits to or in respect of its staff (including the Chief Executive).

(2) A scheme 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 person.

(3) The Authority may at any time prepare and submit to the Minister a scheme amending or revoking a scheme previously submitted and approved under this section including a scheme under this subsection or a scheme to which subsection (5) applies.

(4) 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 Finance, be carried out by the Authority in accordance with its terms.

(5) Notwithstanding the repeal of the Act of 1989 by section 4 , any scheme for the granting of superannuation benefits to or in respect of any members of staff of the Authority in operation immediately before the commencement of the said section 4 shall continue in operation after such commencement.

(6) A scheme or schemes under this section shall, as respects a person transferred under section 54 to be a member of the staff of the Authority, provide for the granting to or in respect of him or her of superannuation benefits upon and subject to terms and conditions that are not less favourable to him or her than the terms and conditions applied to him or her immediately before the day on which he or she was so transferred in relation to the grant of such benefits.

(7) Where, during the period between commencement of this section and the coming into operation of a scheme under this section, superannuation benefits would have been granted to or in respect of a person transferred by section 54 to the staff of the Authority in respect of his or her employment as an officer of the Minister, the superannuation benefits shall be granted and paid to or in respect of the person by the Authority and for that purpose his or her pensionable service with the Authority shall be aggregated with his or her previous pensionable service.

(8) Subject to subsection (7), no superannuation benefit shall be granted by the Authority to or in respect of any members of its staff (including the Chief Executive) who are members of a scheme under this section, nor shall any other arrangement be entered into for the provision of any superannuation benefit to such persons, otherwise than in accordance with a scheme submitted and approved under this section or with the consent of the Minister and the Minister for Finance.

(9) If a dispute arises as to the claim of a person to, or the amount of, a superannuation benefit payable in respect of a scheme under this section, the dispute shall be submitted to the Minister who shall refer it to the Minister for Finance.

(10) The Minister shall cause every scheme submitted and approved under this section, including an amendment of a scheme, to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as practicable after it is approved and, if a resolution annulling the scheme is passed by either 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, but without prejudice to the validity of anything done under the scheme.