Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2009
Acts of the Oireachtas
Source: Acts of the Oireachtas

num: 1
paragraphs: — In this Act—
“ Civil Service ” means the Civil Service of the Government and the Civil Service of the State;
“ Minister ” means the Minister for Finance;
“ public servant ” means—
(a) a person who is employed by, or who holds any office or other position in, a public service body,
(b) a member of either House of the Oireachtas or of a local authority (within the meaning of the Local Government Act 2001 ),
(c) a member of the European Parliament for a constituency in the State, being a member who is in receipt of the allowance referred to in section 2 of the European Assembly (Irish Representatives) Act 1979 , or
(d) the holder of a qualifying office,
but does not include the President, a member of the judiciary or a military judge appointed under Chapter IVC of Part V of the Defence Act 1954 (as amended by the Defence (Amendment) Act 2007 );
“ public service body ” means—
(a) the Civil Service,
(b) the Garda SÃ­ochÃ¡na,
(c) the Permanent Defence Force,
(d) a local authority for the purposes of the Local Government Act 2001 ,
(e) the Health Service Executive,
(f) the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland,
(g) a vocational education committee established under section 7 of the Vocational Education Act 1930 ,
num: 2
paragraphs: — (1) This section applies to a person—
(a) who—
(i) is a public servant on 1 March 2009, or
(ii) is not a public servant on that date but after that date is appointed or otherwise becomes a public servant, and
(b) who, on 1 March 2009 or at any time afterwards—
(i) is a member of a public service pension scheme,
(ii) is entitled to a benefit under such a scheme, or
(iii) receives a payment in lieu of membership in such a scheme.
(2) In this section, a person to whom this section applies is referred to as a “relevant person”.
(3) The person who is responsible for, or authorises, the payment of remuneration to a relevant person shall deduct or cause to be deducted an amount at the applicable rate or rates specified in the Table in this subsection—
(a) in the case of the period 1 March 2009 to 31 December 2009, in respect of that period, and
(b) in the case of the year 2010 and each subsequent year, in respect of the year concerned,
from the remuneration from time to time payable to the relevant person during that period or any such year.
TABLE
Amount of Remuneration
Rate of deduction
Up to €15,000
3 per cent
Any excess over €15,000 but not over €20,000
6 per cent
Any amount over €20,000
10 per cent
(4) The deduction which this section requires shall be made in accordance with any regulations made by the Minister under section 3 .
(5) This section has effect notwithstanding—
(a) any other enactment,
(b) any pension scheme or arrangement,
(c) any other agreement or contractual arrangement, or
(d) any understanding, expectation, circular or instrument or other document.
num: 3
paragraphs: — (1) The Minister may make regulations for the purposes of the calculation, making, collection, disposal and recovery of deductions made under section 2 .
(2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), the Minister may make provision in regulations under this section for any of the following:
num: 4
paragraphs: — (1) Without prejudice to subsection (2), and subject to—
(a) any requirement under any regulations made under section 3 to repay any overpayment, or
(b) any requirement arising under section 5 or 6 to repay any deduction,
deductions made under section 2 shall be paid into or disposed of for the benefit of the Exchequer in accordance with the directions of the Minister or otherwise paid or disposed of as the Minister may direct.
(2) Where any amount deducted under section 2 (other than an amount referred to in paragraph (a) or (b) of subsection (1)) has not been duly remitted in accordance with any regulations under section 3 , then the Minister may, in addition to any means of recovery provided for by regulations under that section, recover the amount from the person obliged to remit it as a simple contract debt in any court of competent jurisdiction.
num: 5
paragraphs: — (1) A public servant (other than a serving member of the Permanent Defence Force) who on 1 March 2009 had less than two years in service and was accruing benefits in a public service pension scheme but did not have any preserved rights to a pension under that scheme may give, at any time before 1 April 2009, one month’s written notice to terminate his or her employment, office or position as a public servant.
(2) A written notice in accordance with subsection (1) has effect without that person being required to comply with any contractual or statutory requirement to give any longer period of notice before ceasing to be a public servant.
(3) Where a person to whom subsection (1) relates terminates his or her employment, office or position as a public servant after 1 March 2009 in accordance with that subsection, and at the time of termination has less than two years in service, then, notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, any deduction made pursuant to section 2 from the remuneration of that person as a public servant shall be repaid to him or her.
num: 6
paragraphs: — (1) Any deduction made pursuant to section 2 (other than in respect of a person to whom subsection (1)(b)(iii) of that section relates) from the remuneration as a public servant of a person who ceases to be a public servant, to whom no superannuation benefit (including preserved benefit, within the meaning given by section 28 of the Pensions Act 1990 ) has accrued and whose service is not transferred to another public service body in accordance with arrangements approved by the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government or the Minister for Finance, shall not be treated as a deduction for the purposes of this Act.
(2) The person liable to account for any deduction referred to in subsection (1) shall repay it, as soon as practicable, to the person from whose remuneration it was deducted.
(3) If a person receives a repayment under subsection (2) on ceasing to be a public servant and subsequently wishes to have the service in respect of which that repayment was made reckoned for superannuation purposes, then—
(a) the person shall refund the repayment plus compound interest (in accordance with arrangements determined by the Minister) to the person who made the repayment to him or her, and
(b) that refund plus the amount of interest payable under paragraph (a) is to be treated as a deduction under section 2 .
num: 7
paragraphs: — (1) Nothing in this Act is to be read as conferring any additional benefit payable, or that may become payable, under a public service pension scheme.
(2) A deduction under section 2 is not a pension contribution for the purposes of the Pensions Act 1990 .
num: 8
paragraphs: — Where the Minister is satisfied that there is a particular class or group of public servants who, by reason of exceptional circumstances (because of some particular aspect or condition of their employment, office or position) which, in the Minister’s opinion, are materially distinguished from other classes or groups of public servants to which section 2 applies, then the Minister, if he or she considers it to be just and equitable in all the circumstances to do so, may by direction—
(a) exempt that class or group from deductions under section 2 , either entirely or to such extent as the Minister considers appropriate, or
(b) modify the obligation under section 2 to make deductions from their remuneration in such manner as the Minister thinks fit, having regard to the nature and degree of the financial burden that would otherwise be borne by that class or group,
and the provisions of this Act relating to deductions, and of any regulations made under any of those provisions, shall be read subject to any such direction.
num: 9
paragraphs: — (1) Notwithstanding any other enactment, contract, arrangement, understanding, expectation, circular or instrument or other document, the Minister for Health and Children may, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, by regulation, reduce, whether by formula or otherwise, the amount or the rate of payment to be made to health professionals, or classes of health professionals, in respect of any services that they render to or on behalf of a health body from the date of the regulation.
(2) Subsection (1) shall apply to the services rendered from the date of the regulation, notwithstanding that the health professionals concerned may have commenced the provision of the service prior to the date of the regulation.
(3) A regulation made under subsection (1) may fix different amounts or rates for different services, and as and from the date of the regulation, there shall be no entitlement to payment in excess of the amounts and rates so specified, although nothing in this section shall prevent any health professional from providing a service for a lesser amount or at a lower rate.
(4) Prior to making a regulation under subsection (1), the Minister for Health and Children, or, at that Minister’s direction, the health body concerned, shall engage in such consultations as that Minister considers appropriate.
(5) A regulation made under subsection (1) shall fix amounts or rates that the Minister for Health and Children considers to be fair and reasonable in the light of the purposes of this Act, having regard to the matters which that Minister considers appropriate, including any or all of the following:
(a) the terms of any existing contractual arrangements or understandings with the health professionals concerned or any expectation on their part;
(b) the terms of any circular, instrument, or document which apply to the health professionals concerned;
(c) any submissions made and views expressed during the consultations under subsection (4);
(d) the nature of the services rendered by different classes of health professionals and the general nature of expenses and commitments of the health professionals providing those services;
(e) the impact on the State’s ability to continue to provide health services at existing levels if reductions are not made; and
(f) the fairness and efficiency of any method of effecting any reductions in payments having regard to the requirements of good and effective administration.
(6) The powers conferred on or exercised by the Minister for Health and Children under this section shall not affect any existing right to negotiate or amend rates or contracts generally which that Minister or the health body concerned enjoys apart from this section, and those rights may be exercised in conjunction with, in addition to or instead of the powers conferred by this Act.
(7) Consultations under subsection (4) shall be completed no later than 30 days after the Minister for Health and Children gives notice of the commencement of the consultations.
(8) A health professional who does not wish to continue to render services to or on behalf of the health body concerned on the basis of a payment regime fixed in a regulation made under subsection (1) may give 30 days’ notice to that effect to the health body and, on the expiration of those 30 days, shall be relieved of any obligation to render those services notwithstanding any contractual or other term with regard to notice.
(9) If a health body receives notice from a health professional under subsection (8), it may, notwithstanding any other enactment, contract, implementing circular, instrument or other document, engage the services of other health professionals to ensure that the services continue to be available.
(10) The Minister for Health and Children may define the manner in which consultations under subsection (4) are to be conducted and conduct them in such manner, and with such representatives of health professionals or otherwise, as he or she considers appropriate, and nothing in the Competition Act 2002 shall prevent participation by that Minister or any such representative in such consultations, or the communication and discussion of the outcome of such consultations by the representatives with the health professionals they represent.
(11) The Minister for Health and Children may make regulations to do anything that appears necessary or expedient for bringing this section into operation, or facilitating its operation, with a view to fulfilling the purposes for which this Act was enacted.
(12) Regulations made under subsection (11) may contain such incidental, supplementary and consequential provisions as appear to the Minister for Health and Children to be necessary or expedient for the purposes of the regulations.
(13) Without prejudice to section 13 , the Minister for Health and Children may from time to time and shall, before 30 June in 2010 and every year after 2010, carry out a review of the operation, effectiveness and impact of the amounts and rates fixed by regulation under this section and consider the appropriateness of those amounts and rates, having regard to any change of circumstances and in particular any alteration of any of the matters mentioned in subsection (5).
(14) If, after completing a review under subsection (13), the Minister for Health and Children considers it appropriate to do so, that Minister may, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, by regulation adjust (whether by formula or otherwise) the amount or the rate of payment to be made to health professionals, or classes of health professionals, in respect of any services that they render to or on behalf of a health body from the date of the regulation.
(15) Subsections (2) to (12) apply, with the necessary modifications, to the making of regulations under subsection (14).
(16) Regulations made under this section shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after they are made and, if a resolution annulling the regulations is passed by either such House within the next 21 days on which that House has sat after the regulations are laid before it, the regulations shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under the regulations.
(17) In this section—
“ health body ” means the Health Service Executive and any other body under the aegis of the Minister for Health and Children wholly or partly funded by the Exchequer to which, or on behalf of which, health professionals render services; and
“health professional” includes—
(a) a registered medical practitioner,
(b) a registered dentist,
(c) a registered pharmacist,
(d) an optometrist,
(e) an ophthalmologist,
(f) a podiatrist, and
(g) a chiropodist.
(18) Where the provider of a service of a kind normally provided by a health professional is a company or other body corporate, or the legal personal representative of a deceased health professional, a reference in this section to a health professional includes the company or other body corporate or legal personal representative.
(19) In this section, payment in respect of a service rendered by a health professional includes payment in respect of goods provided by that health professional as part of the service.
num: 10
paragraphs: — (1) Notwithstanding any other enactment, contract, arrangement, understanding, expectation, circular or instrument or other document, any Minister of the Government may, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, by regulation, reduce, whether by formula or otherwise, the amount or the rate of payment to be made to persons, or classes of persons, in respect of any service that they render to or on behalf of that Minister of the Government or under the aegis of that Minister.
(2) For the purposes of this Act, any service rendered to the State that is not rendered to or on behalf of a Minister of the Government or under the aegis of such a Minister is to be taken to be rendered to the Minister for Finance. The Minister for Finance may exercise the powers conferred by subsection (1) in relation to the persons rendering such services.
(3) Where the Minister by whom regulations are to be made under subsection (1) or (2) is the Minister for Finance, the reference in subsection (1) to obtaining the consent of that Minister is to be disregarded.
(4) A Minister of the Government making regulations under subsection (1) shall have all the powers enjoyed by the Minister for Health and Children under section 9 and shall likewise be subject to all the obligations imposed on the Minister for Health and Children under that section.
(5) Subsections (2) to (16) and (19) of section 9 apply, with the necessary modifications, to a Minister of the Government making regulations, and to regulations made, under subsection (1).
num: 11
paragraphs: — The provisions of sections 9 and 10 and of regulations made under those sections shall not apply to the remuneration of a person in respect of which a deduction is made under section 2 .
num: 12
paragraphs: — (1) The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food may by order defer to a specified date any liability, accrual or payment under the Farm Waste Management Scheme in whole or in part if, having consulted the Minister, he or she is of the opinion that it is necessary to do so, having regard to—
(a) the purposes of this Act, and
(b) the resources available to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from time to time to make payments under the Scheme.
(2) The date specified in an order under subsection (1) may be in the financial year after the one during which the order is made or any subsequent financial year.
(3) If the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food defers a liability, accrual or payment under subsection (1)—
(a) no obligation to make any payment arises in respect of the amount deferred, and
(b) there is no liability to pay, nor accrual of, the amount,
before the date specified by that Minister in the order concerned.
(4) A deferral under this section has effect notwithstanding the terms of the Farm Waste Management Scheme or any entitlement however arising.
(5) An order under this section shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the order is passed by either such House within the next 21 days on which that House has sat after the order is laid before it, the order shall be annulled accordingly but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under the order.
(6) In this section “Farm Waste Management Scheme” means the scheme which came into effect on 23 March 2006, and is known as the Scheme of Investment Aid for Farm Waste Management.
num: 13
paragraphs: — Before 30 June in 2010 and every year after 2010, the Minister shall—
(a) carry out a review of the operation, effectiveness and impact of this Act, having regard to the overall economic conditions in the State and national competitiveness,
(b) consider whether or not any of the provisions of this Act continue to be necessary having regard to the purposes of this Act, the overall economic conditions in the State, national competitiveness and Exchequer commitments in respect of public service pensions,
(c) make such findings as he or she thinks appropriate consequent on such review and consideration, and
(d) cause a written report of his or her findings resulting from the review and consideration to be prepared and laid before each House of the Oireachtas.
num: 14
paragraphs: — (1) The Minister may make regulations for the purposes of this Act or in consequence of any of its provisions or for the purpose of enabling any provision to have full effect.
(2) Regulations made by the Minister under this section may contain such incidental, supplementary and consequential provisions as appear to the Minister to be necessary or expedient for the purposes of the regulations.
(3) Regulations under this section shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after they are made and if a resolution annulling the regulations is passed by either such House within the next 21 days on which that House has sat after the regulations are laid before it, the regulations shall be annulled accordingly but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under the regulations.
num: 15
paragraphs: — Where a doubt, question or dispute arises in the operation of this Act in respect of whether a person is or is not a person subject to deduction under this Act, then such doubt, question or dispute shall—
(a) be submitted to the Minister by the person who authorises or would authorise the payment of the remuneration concerned, and
(b) be determined by the Minister after consulting such persons (if any) as the Minister considers appropriate in the circumstances,
and the determination of the doubt, question or dispute by the Minister shall be final.
num: 16
paragraphs: — (1) The Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 is amended in Chapter 4 of Part 30 by inserting the following section after section 790B:
“Relief for deduction under Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2009.
num: 17
paragraphs: — The Local Government Act 1998 is amended in section 4—
(a) by deleting subsections (1) to (5), and
(b) by inserting the following before subsection (6):
“(5A) The Minister shall pay into the Fund for the financial year 2009 and each subsequent financial year an amount, such as he or she shall determine, with the consent of the Minister for Finance.”.
num: 18
paragraphs: — (1) The Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 is amended in Part 4A (inserted by section 28 > of the Social Welfare Law Reform and Pensions Act 2006 )—
(a) in section 223A (substituted by section 21 of the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2008 ) by substituting “5 years” for “5 years and 6 months”, and
(b) in section 223B (as so substituted)—
(i) in subsection (1) by substituting “€996” for “€1,104” and “€83” for “€92”,
(ii) in subsection (2) by substituting “5 years” for “5 years and 6 months”, and
(iii) in subsection (3) by substituting “5 years” for “5 years and 6 months”,
and sections 223A and 223B, as so amended, are set out in the Table to this section.
(2) This section comes into operation, or is to be taken to have come into operation, on 1 March 2009.
TABLE
Entitlement to early childcare supplement.
223A.—Subject to this Part, a person who is a qualified person for the purposes of Part 4 shall, so long as he or she remains so qualified, be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas a monthly payment (in this Act referred to as ‘early childcare supplement’) in accordance with section 223B in respect of each qualified child (within the meaning of section 219) until such time as the qualified child attains the age of 5 years.
Amount of early childcare supplement.
223B.—(1) Subject to this Act, the maximum amount of early childcare supplement payable under section 223A in respect of each qualified child shall not exceed €996 in any year, payable in equal monthly instalments of €83.
(2) Early childcare supplement shall be payable in respect of the month following the month of the birth of the child and shall continue to be payable up to and including the month in which the child attains the age of 5 years.
(3) Early childcare supplement shall be paid monthly in arrears and the final payment shall be in respect of the month in which the child attains the age of 5 years.
(4) Regulations which may be made under section 242(1)(a) providing for the time and manner of payment of early childcare supplement shall be subject to the consent of the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Health and Children.
num: 19
paragraphs: — This Act may be cited as the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2009.