Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 18 October 2012

Public Accounts Committee

2011 Appropriation Accounts of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Vote 36: Defence - Review of Allowances

10:45 am

Mr. Brian O'Keeffe:

None of them is, with the exception of military service allowance. There might be two other allowances for officers paid to very small numbers that are pensionable. The military service allowance is the main one.

If I could, I might throw some light on why it was not amalgamated into pay. It was not pensionable until 1990. When it was made pensionable, it was only made pensionable for people who were in receipt it from 1990 forward. If it had been amalgamated before that, of course, the pension of retired personnel would have increased. That is why it was done.