Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697804167340.pdf (Ireland)
BILLE NA bPINSEAN (LAGHDU), 1965 PENSIONS (ABATEMENT) BILL, 1965 ________________ EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM ________________ Legislation and statutory instruments governing superannuation in respect of public service normally provide for the abatement of pension if the pensioner is re-employed in the public service.
This abatement reduces the pension by any sum by which the aggregate of annual salary on re-employment plus the pension exceeds the salary on retirement from the position in respect of which the pension was awarded.

The Pensions (Abatement) Bill, 1965, pro­ vides for the modification of these provisions with effect from the 1st January, 1965.
Firstly, it limits the application of abatement to re-employment in the same service in which the pension was earned and secondly, it provides that this limited abatement will be related, not to the salary on retirement from the pensionable position, but to the salary currently payable in respect of that position.
Pensions awarded to civil servants under the Superannuation Acts, 1834 to 1963, are subject to abatement under section 20 of the Superannuation Act, 1834, if the pensioner is re-employed in any office in any public department.

This provision is being re­ placed by section 1 of the Bill which will limit abatement in future to cases where the pensioner is re-employed in the Civil Service.
It will also ease this limited abatement by relating it to current salary levels instead of the pay which the pensioner had on retire­ ment from his pensionable position.

Section 1 further provides that the Minister for Finance may waive abatement altogether in any particular case where he considers that persons with particular training and experience are required for particular work and it is not practicable to have this work done otherwise than by the re­ employment of pensioners.
These provisions will not apply to a pensioner who is re-employed between the 1st January, 1965, and the passing of the Bill unless he opts for them before the 1st January, 1966.

If he does not opt, the existing provisions of section 20 of the 1834 Act will continue to apply to him.

Sections 4 and 5 apply similar provisions to pensions awarded to local authority officers and servants under the Local Government (Superannuation) Acts, 1948 and 1956.
Subsection (2) of section 5 of the Presidential Establishment Act, 1938, which provides for the abatement of the pension payable to a former President if he becomes a member of the Oireachtas, is being repealed.

Subsection (3), which provides for abatement of pension where the former President is in receipt of any payment out of public funds or the funds of a local authority, will, under section 2 of the Bill, no longer apply except where he is re­ appointed President.
Section 3 provides that in the case of a person in receipt of a ministerial or secretarial pension, abatement will not apply to his pension unless he is appointed to a ministerial or secretarial office or as Attorney General.

This is in substitution for the present ^JFO vision whereby the pensioner who receives any payment ex­ ceeding £1,000 a year out of public funds is liable to have his pension abated.
Section 6 will limit abatement of the pension payable on his retirement to the present whole-time director of the Electricity Supply Board to re-employment on the Board or in its service.

It will also ease this limited abatement by relating it to the salary which would currently be payable for the post in respect of which the pension was awarded instead of the actual salary on retirement.
Section 7 applies a similar provision to a person having a pension in respect of membership of the Industrial Development Authority.

Certain repeals, in addition to those already mentioned, are made in section 8.

Section 15 of the Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices Act, 1938, enables the payment of a gratuity to a retiring Attorney General except where he is appointed within twelve months of his retirement to a public office with remuneration of over £1,000 a year.
This limitation on the gratuity is being removed.

Subsection (8) of section 20 of the 1938 Act, which pro­ vides that a widow’s pension or a child’s allowance shall not be payable under the Act if provision for the payment of any sums to the widow or child is made under any other Act, is being re­ pealed.
Subsection (8) of section 4 and subsection (7) of section 5 of the Superannuation and Pensions Act, 1963, which provide for the abatement of public service pensions based on transferred ser­ vice under the provisions of that Act on re-employment in the public service are also being repealed.

Under the Bill, abatement will only occur on re-employment in the service from which the pensioner retires.

An Roinn Airgeadais, Bealtctine, 1965.

Wt.

J.44171/G/5.

625.

5/65.

CACo.

(4102).

G.16.

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