Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2010

Interpretation.

1.— In this Act—

“Act of 2009” means the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Act 2009 ;

“Civil Service” means the Civil Service of the Government and the Civil Service of the State;

“lump sum” means a lump sum payment or gratuity payable on retirement, at a preserved pension age or on death, under a public service pension scheme;

“Minister” means the Minister for Finance;

“office holder” means—

(a) the President,

(b) the holder of a qualifying office,

(c) a member of either House of the Oireachtas,

(d) a member of the judiciary,

(e) a military judge appointed under Chapter IVC of Part V of the Defence Act 1954 (as amended by the Defence (Amendment) Act 2007 ),

(f) a member of a local authority within the meaning of the Local Government Act 2001 , or

(g) a member of the European Parliament for a constituency in the State, being a member who is in receipt of the salary specified in section 2 (2) of the European Parliament (Irish Constituency Members) Act 2009 ;

“paying authority”, in relation to a public service pension, means the person or body responsible for making payments of the public service pension under the public service pension scheme concerned, or causing such payments to be made, to or in respect of a public servant or former public servant;

“pensioner” means a person who—

(a) is entitled to payment of a public service pension under a public service pension scheme,

(b) has a preserved benefit in a public service pension scheme in respect of which the preserved pension age of the person falls on or before the relevant date, or

(c) is a spouse or child of a public servant or former public servant and who becomes entitled to payment of a public service pension as a spouse or child of that public servant or former public servant, as the case may be, under a public service pension scheme at any time after the relevant date but only if that public servant or former public servant, as the case may be, was entitled before that date to payment of a public service pension under a public service pension scheme in respect of service as a public servant from which the entitlement of the spouse or child derives;

“preserved benefit” has the meaning it has in the Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2004 ;

“preserved pension age”, in relation to a preserved benefit in a public service pension scheme, means the age of the public servant or former public servant concerned at which the preserved benefit becomes payable to him or her under the scheme;

“public servant” means a person who is employed by, or who holds any office or other position in, a public service body and includes an office holder;

“public service body” means—

(a) the Civil Service,

(b) the Garda Síochána,

(c) the Permanent Defence Force,

(d) a local authority for the purposes of the Local Government Act 2001 ,

(e) the National Treasury Management Agency,

(f) the Health Service Executive,

(g) the Central Bank of Ireland,

(h) a vocational education committee established under section 7 of the Vocational Education Act 1930 ,

(i) the Economic and Social Research Institute,

(j) the Institute of Public Administration,

(k) a body (other than a body specified or referred to in the Schedule) established—

(i) by or under an enactment (other than the Companies Acts), or

(ii) under the Companies Acts in pursuance of powers conferred by or under another enactment, and financed wholly or partly by means of moneys provided, or loans made or guaranteed, by a Minister of the Government or the issue of shares held by or on behalf of a Minister of the Government,

in respect of which a public service pension scheme exists or applies or may be made,

(l) a body (other than a body specified or referred to in the Schedule) that is wholly or partly funded directly or indirectly out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas or from the Central Fund or the growing produce of that Fund and in respect of which a public service pension scheme exists or applies or may be made,

(m) any subsidiary of, or company controlled (within the meaning given by section 10 of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 ) by, a body to which paragraph (d), (e), (f), (g), (h), (i), (j), (k) or (l) relates and in respect of which a public service pension scheme exists or applies or may be made;

“public service pension” means a periodic payment of a pension or other benefit by whatever name called, which is not a lump sum, payable to or in respect of a public servant or former public servant under a public service pension scheme;

“public service pension scheme” means an occupational pension scheme or pension arrangement, by whatever name called, for any part of the public service which—

(a) is provided for under—

(i) the Superannuation Acts 1834 to 1963, or

(ii) any other enactment or administrative measure for the like purpose and to the like effect as those Acts, or

(b) is made by a relevant Minister or has been approved or requires the approval or consent, however expressed, of a relevant Minister or the Minister or both of those Ministers of the Government,

but does not include—

(i) such a scheme or arrangement—

(I) in respect of a body specified or referred to in the Schedule, or

(II) in respect of a body other than a body specified or referred to in the Schedule that is a relevant scheme within the meaning of section 40 of the Pensions Act 1990 and to which Part IV of, and the Third Schedule to, that Act apply, or

(ii) the scheme entitled the eircom Superannuation Scheme;

“qualifying office” has the same meaning as it has in section 13 (inserted by the Oireachtas (Allowances to Members) and Ministerial, Parliamentary and Judicial Offices (Amendment) Act 1977 ) of the Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices Act 1938 , that is to say—

(a) a ministerial office within the meaning of that section as amended by the Oireachtas (Allowances to Members) and Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices (Amendment) Act 1973 ), or

(b) a secretarial office within the meaning of that section as amended by the Oireachtas (Allowances to Members) and Ministerial, Parliamentary and Judicial Offices (Amendment) Act 1983 and the Ministerial, Parliamentary and Judicial Offices and Oireachtas Members (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2001 );

“relevant date” means the date specified by the Minister in an order made pursuant to section 3(1)(b)(ii) of the Act of 2009;

“relevant Minister”, in relation to a public service pension scheme, means the Minister or Ministers of the Government responsible for the making or approval of, or the giving of consent to, the scheme;

“subsidiary” means a subsidiary within the meaning of the Companies Acts.