Results 321-340 of 16,537 for speaker:Brian Lenihan Jnr

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: This is to clarify that the offer of appointment is a binding offer.

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: The purpose of this is to provide for seasonal workers who are called back each year, for example, temporary clerical staff who are employed seasonally at the passport office. While they may receive a new contract each year their rights and entitlements accrue from year to year so it is, in effect, the same contract of employment. It is to ensure there is no break in this provision.

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: They are not new entrants.

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: Those people are on panels.

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: In the public service there are many instances of persons who are on panels for relief work and so forth, or work in the passport office. They have accrued employment rights, must be given first refusal each year, are entitled to incremental credit and seniority claims and they are pensionable. There is a category of staff within the branches of the public service of this type and references...

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: This does not apply to a person who has resigned from the service. It applies to a circumstance where there is an established custom and practice concerning the person who happens not to be at work on the operative date, but has a right to take up employment there. Someone who resigns from the public service does not have a right to return to the service.

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: They are not employed under a contract. We are back to our chasm.

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: Unfortunately it is neither. Someone who resigns from the public service does not have a right to return to the public service.

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: There was legislation providing for such rights for those who were disadvantaged by the marriage bar.

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: I admire the Senator's industry in constructing this Trojan horse. However, I can assure him that when a person resigns from the public service, a resignation has occurred. This section does not apply to resigned civil servants.

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: If they are on the panel.

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: Senator O'Toole made a point about contracts. A person does not have the same contract if he or she resigns. The same contract applies to a person in seasonal or part-time employment who still has a continuity of entitlement within the public service. That is what these subsections are trying to protect. The chasm to which I referred is that between a person with this entitlement and a person...

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: They are not new entrants if they have an entitlement to be considered as part of a panel. Panels are constituted in a certain way: a person on the panel has a right to be sent for prior to the engagement of a person not on the panel.

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: The Senator uses the phrase "under contract" but, as he must be aware from his extensive experience in industrial relations, not every employment relationship has a definite deed in a box with a label saying "Contract." These matters are often dealt with via circulars or correspondence. There is not always a binding document with a signature at the bottom. I am not aware of the particulars of...

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: Once that relationship is not terminated, the person cannot be a new entrant. If someone wrote to the Department of Foreign Affairs saying he no longer wished to be on the panel for employment in the Passport Office, the relationship would be terminated. The person would have terminated his entitlements.

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: Were that person then to re-seek employment in the Passport Office he would be a new entrant.

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: This is a very technical point. Of course there may be a new contract dealing with the actual payment of wages and the implied terms of the relationship, but there is a wider relationship, with legal consequences, which is acknowledged by the Department in that context. It is a labour law contract relationship. The employment relationship which entitles a person to be considered for return is...

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: A famous jurist once pointed out that most confusions about law derive from the confusion of the physical and the legal. Legal concepts are distinct from physical concepts and they are crystal clear. Senator O'Toole should not fasten his mind on the physical body in the Passport Office.

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: He should focus on the employment relationship. If he focuses on the terms of the legislation we are considering, he will notice that the phrase "under the same contract of employment" in both contexts is linked with the concept of "last day of service" in the next sentence. If there is a day of service and a person happened not to be in the building during a defined period of time, there is...

Seanad: Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004: Committee Stage (Resumed). (26 Feb 2004)

Brian Lenihan Jnr: Senator Walsh used the word "discrimination". The Bill is, in a sense, an act of discrimination because it discriminates or distinguishes between the present and future corps of public servants. This variation of status with regard to extension of service, which is voluntary, is seen as part of the overall set of measures which applies to new entrants. The option has not been created for...