Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This concerns the pensions of the Judiciary. Can the Minister clarify the amendment to provisions in section 6(1) set out in section 15? Are we talking about a change? A judge receives a pension after 15 years and I am not clear in my mind whether judges receive one-thirtieth or one-fortieth per year of service and whether this has been changed for some judges to three eightieths, which gives an enhanced pension. Can we clarify this point?

Section 15(2) provides that a judge of the Supreme Court or Court of Appeal can be removed from office on account of incapacity. He or she shall be deemed for pension purposes to have vacated his or her office owing to permanent infirmity. What pension entitlements arise from this in terms of the ongoing pension and the gratuity? Is there a provision for judges to add service? In the case of someone who is 65 and who becomes incapacitated, when the retirement age is 70, is there a provision for the person to buy, or be given, additional service, which happens at the higher echelons of the public service? How is incapacity defined? Does drug addiction qualify as incapacity for the purpose of these benefits?

What is the position on alcoholism, which I accept is a disease and should be treated as such? Sometimes one believes people's reasons for retiring from various professions are spurious. They may not be because we may not have all the medical facts. What safeguards are in place to protect the taxpayer, which is ultimately what we are charged with doing?