Deputy Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform ( Brendan Howlin:

I apologise in advance for the fact that I will be absent for the first hour or so of this debate. There is a scheduled meeting of the implementation body of the Croke Park agreement with the Taoiseach. I have been preparing for that and will be going there immediately. The Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, will follow the debate and I hope Members will accept that.

We dealt with this amendment at some length on Committee Stage. The provisions are intended to deal with exceptional situations and their application requires ministerial sanction. As was said on Committee Stage, the repeal of sections 6 and 7 of the 1963 Act, which is implicit in the proposal, could only have prospective effect. I explained this in some detail to Deputy McDonald at the time and I think she understands that we cannot have a retrospective impact on the people we are talking about.

This legislation is creating a new framework for the future. These provisions not only apply to Secretaries General and the like, but they were also the basis for the terms offered in the general voluntary early retirement scheme in the Civil Service, which in certain circumstances allowed up to seven years' severance payments.

The House will be aware that, on my recommendation, the Government has already introduced a brand new regime to apply to Secretaries General. The Top Level Appointments Committee, TLAC, terms, which had been in place since 1987, were fundamentally altered within a matter of months of this Government taking office and my Department being established. Those very generous terms that applied in good times and bad - because we went through some difficult times post-1987 - have been altered. There is a new, much fairer system in place for all appointments.

At Question Time last week, I indicated the list of new appointments made to Secretary General rank since those new terms have been applied. A Secretary General's term of office is only seven years, so over a relatively short period they will work themselves out of the system. However, we cannot reach back legally to others. I know the Deputy has already debated this with me, but that is the advice I have received and I have laid it out fairly. We are changing the regime so that in future it will be a much fairer one.

The whole import of this Bill is to have one comprehensive piece of legislation that deals with everybody in a fair way. Fast accruals are implicit in this legislation because there are certain categories of work - for instance, the Garda Síochána or the Army - that will require that. I am also applying a relatively fast accrual to Members of the Oireachtas because of the nature of the job here. I am afraid that people have to reapply frequently and the employers sometimes do not see fit to accept one's application.

The new system is much fairer, however. Where there is fast accrual, in each circumstance under this new regime, there will be a concomitant significant increase in the contribution paid. The single scheme, therefore, will be a better and much more transparent system. The component parts of it are fair.

As regards the specific points the Deputy has made, we will come back to that in a different context, but it cannot be dealt with in the way that she is suggesting here.

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