Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 1042: To ask the Minister for Defence if and when military service allowance will be awarded to a person (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10830/05]

Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
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Military service allowance, MSA, was made pensionable in the case of Defence Forces personnel retiring on or after 1 August 1990 on foot of a recommendation of the Commission on Remuneration and Conditions of Service in the Defence Forces, the Gleeson commission. That approach is fully consistent with settled public service pensions policy, which provides that the benefit of an allowance being made pensionable for serving personnel does not extend to existing pensioners. As the person in question retired before 1 August 1990, he is not eligible to have MSA taken into account in the calculation of his pension.

Michael Noonan (Limerick East, Fine Gael)
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Question 1043: To ask the Minister for Defence if he will amend the Army Pensions Act to remove the anomaly which he identified in a question that he put to the then Minister for Defence in February 1997 (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10066/05]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)
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Question 1045: To ask the Minister for Defence if his Department has given further consideration to including people with a psychiatric condition in the qualifying criteria for an Army disability pension; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10358/05]

Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Question Nos. 1043 and 1045 together.

The Army Pensions Acts provide that a disability pension may, following retirement, be granted to a former member of the Permanent Defence Force in respect of permanent disablement due to a wound or injury attributable to military service, whether at home or abroad, or to a disease attributable to or aggravated by overseas service with a United Nations force. A wound is defined in broad terms in those Acts as "an interruption of the normal continuity of body tissue caused by direct or indirect violence". An application for a disability pension in respect of psychiatric or depressive illness could be considered if the condition was due to a wound or injury or to overseas service.

The specific provisions in the Army Pensions Acts covering disease attributable to or aggravated by overseas service with the United Nations were introduced in 1960 in the context of the additional risks and dangers associated with such service. Similar provisions previously applied only where the disease was attributable to home service during the 1922-24 period or the emergency period of 1939-45 because service conditions during each of these periods were regarded as exceptional.

The advice of the military medical authorities is that there is no reason to believe that the incidence of psychiatric and depressive illness among military personnel is different from that of the general population or, where depressive illness does occur, that it is related to or is a direct result of military service.

Under existing superannuation arrangements, viz. the Defence Forces pensions schemes, an NCO or private with 12 or more years' service who is discharged on medical grounds qualifies for a service pension and a retirement gratuity regardless of whether the medical condition is service-related. In addition to benefits under those schemes and the Army Pensions Acts, NCOs and privates are insured for the full range of benefits under the Social Welfare Acts, including unemployment benefit, disability benefit and invalidity pension. They are also covered for hospital and medical services, including medical cards, under the Health Acts on the same basis as other members of the community.