Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail)

I ask the Government to review the Garda superannuation scheme in order to provide justice and fairness to a number of former members, 81 in total, who have been deprived of their preserved retirement benefits due to the fact that they were dismissed or left the service prior to 1 October 1976.

The Garda Síochána superannuation scheme was introduced by way of statutory instrument, SI 63/1925. Section 13 of the Police Forces (Amalgamation) Act 1925 is the primary legislation on which it is based. From 1 October 1976, if a garda with a minimum of five years service after that date but less than 30 years service resigned or was dismissed, the superannuation benefits are preserved to age 60. These arrangements were introduced to the Garda superannuation scheme with effect from 1 October 1976by way of Agreed Report No. 218 of the Garda Conciliation Council. No provision was made to provide superannuation benefits for those former gardaí who left for any reason before 1 October 1976,except in certain circumstances where they subsequently took up another appointment in the public service. To date these agreed reports have not been incorporated into a statutory instrument and are only being operated on an administrative basis. On the other hand, Civil Service arrangements for preserved benefits, including their cut-off point of 1 June 1973, have been incorporated into legislation by way of SI 188/1 980 of the Superannuation Act 1909. The Garda Síochána superannuation preservation of benefits scheme was introduced on 1 October 1976. This scheme required a minimum of five years service for qualification to its benefits. However, the preservation of benefits superannuation scheme for civil servantswas introduced with effect from 1 June 1973 - three years and five months ahead of An Garda Síochána.

It was not until the pre-1 October 1976 group of former gardaí, who were then approaching the age of 60, began to make inquiries about their entitlements that they became aware that they were excluded from the superannuation scheme by the arbitrary cut-off date of 1 October 1976. Opinion was then sought from Mr. Gerard Hogan, senior counsel. In his opinion, Mr. Hogan states: "this wrong is now beyond the capacity of the legal system to redress" and goes on to state that members of the Oireachtas "ought, in justice, to rectify this wrong by means of the enactment of legislation to cater for the very discrete category of pre-1976 members of An Garda Síochána". Mr. Hogan further states that "there is also the point that legislation was passed retrospectively to enable former Ministers to apply to preserve their ministerial pension entitlement, even though they had not done so in time in the past". This was referringtoa remedy for the former Minister for Education and Science, Mr. Michael Woods, who had inadvertently missed applying for a pension entitlement by a due date under the Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices Act.

In light of this, is it now possible for the Minister to initiate a process whereby this relatively small cohort of former gardaí will be able to access a preserved pension? They have right on their side and my opinion is shared by Members of the House on all sides. The cost factor would be very small due to the small number of people and the small number of years of service involved. It would bring closure to a long campaign for justice, spearheaded by Councillor Pat Hynes of Galway County Council and his colleagues. I thank the Minister for his attendance.