John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Question 99: To ask the Minister for Finance his views on the budget submission made to Government on behalf of the Retired Nurses Association of Ireland relative to his Department; and if she will make a statement on the issues raised. [12629/05]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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On the issues raised in the submission from the Retired Nurses Association that are within my area of responsibility, while superannuation benefits of nurses are a matter for the Minister for Health and Children in the first instance, the position for public service pensions generally is that prior to 31 July 1973 the law required that female employees had to resign on marriage. In such cases, employees under pension age qualified for marriage gratuities.

While it is accepted that the particular requirement would not pertain today, I have no plans to change the Superannuation Acts to provide pensions for officers who resigned on marriage before 1973. Any decision to provide pensions for officials who resigned on marriage before 1973 would also have wide ramifications in terms of policy and costs for employees who left the public service before the introduction of preserved pension entitlements in the 1970s.

Point 3 proposes that a pension paid to a retiree should transfer in full to a surviving spouse, particularly in the case of the widow's and orphan's scheme. It is not clear from the submission whether social welfare pensions or occupational schemes are being referred to. If the latter, entitlements are a matter for the trustees in the case of private sector schemes and the State in the case of public sector. In 2002, the then Minister for Finance amended the approval conditions for taxation purposes for these occupational schemes so that spouse-dependant pensions could be the same in aggregate as the employee's entitlement.

Spouses and children's schemes in the public service generally give the surviving spouses of members a pension equal to one half of the member's pension, except in the case of the member dying in service or retiring on health grounds, when the pension payable is one half of the pension which would have been paid to the member had the member served to maximum retiring age. There are no plans to increase the rate of spouses' pension payable in public sector schemes.

Point 6 proposes that retired people be exempted from VAT on phone charges. The rate of VAT that applies to a particular good or service is determined by the nature of the good or service and not by the status of the customer. Telecommunications services, including phones, are subject to the standard rate of VAT at 21%. There is no provision in European VAT law, with which Irish VAT law must comply, that would allow the application of an exemption from VAT for supplies to customers who are retired.

My colleagues, the Ministers for Social and Family Affairs and Health and Children will deal with the other issues raised in the submission.