S.I. No. 226/1957 - Córas Iompair Éireann Amending Superannuation Scheme For Regular Wages Staff (Confirmation) Order, 1957.

WHEREAS by the Córas Iompair Éireann Superannuation Scheme for Regular Wages Staff (Confirmation) Order, 1945 ( S. R. & O. No. 242 of 1945 ), made under subsection (2) of section 44 of the Transport Act, 1944 (No. 21 of 1944), the Córas Iompair Éireann Pensions Scheme for Regular Wages Staff (a copy whereof is set out in the Schedule to the said Order) was confirmed :

AND WHEREAS Córas Iompair Éireann has in pursuance of subsection (5) of section 44 of the Transport Act, 1950 (No. 12 of 1950), submitted to the Minister for Industry and Commerce a scheme (in these Recitals referred to as the amending Scheme) amending the said Córas Iompair Éireann Pension Scheme for Regular Wages Staff :

AND WHEREAS by virtue of subsection (8) of section 44 of the Transport Act, 1950 , a superannuation scheme confirmed under section 44 of the Transport Act, 1944 , is deemed to be a superannuation scheme confirmed under the said section 44 of the Transport Act, 1950 :

AND WHEREAS the Minister for Industry and Commerce, having considered objections and representations in relation to the amending Scheme, has thought it proper to modify the amending Scheme in certain respects :

NOW, I, SEÁN F. LEMASS, Minister for Industry and Commerce, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by subsections (4) and (5) of section 44 of the Transport Act, 1950 (No. 12 of 1950), hereby, after consultation with the Minister for Finance, order as follows :—

1. This Order may be cited as the Córas Iompair Éireann Amending Superannuation Scheme for Regular Wages Staff (Confirmation) Order, 1957.

2. In this Order " the amending scheme " means the scheme (amending the Córas Iompair Éireann Pension Scheme for Regular Wages Staff) submitted by Córas Iompair Éireann in pursuance of subsection (5) of section 44 of the Transport Act, 1950 .

3. The amending scheme, as modified by the Minister for Industry and Commerce (a copy of which, as so modified, is set out in the Schedule to this Order) is hereby confirmed and shall come into operation on the 31st day of October, 1957.

SCHEDULE

C.I.E. SUPERANNUATION (AMENDMENT) SCHEME FOR REGULAR WAGES STAFF.

1. Definitions :

In this amending Scheme the following words and expressions shall have the meaning hereby assigned to them unless there is something in the subject matter or context repugnant to such construction :—

" The existing Scheme " means the Córas Iompair Éireann Pension Scheme for Regular Wages Staff confirmed by the Córas Iompair Éireann Superannuation Scheme for Regular Wages Staff (Confirmation) Order, 1945 ( S. R. & O. No. 242 of 1945 ) as amended by the Córas Iompair Éireann Amending Superannuation Scheme for Regular Wages Staff (Confirmation) Order, 1949 ( S.I. No. 115 of 1949 ), and as further amended by the Córas Iompair Éireann Amending Superannuation Scheme for Regular Wages Staff (Confirmation) Order, 1955, ( S.I. No. 34 of 1955 ).

" The Board " means Córas Iompair Éireann.

" This Scheme " means the existing Scheme as hereby amended.

" The Fund " means the Fund established for the purposes of this Scheme.

" Wages Staff " means and includes all employees of the Board other than persons holding clerical, supervisory, executive, technical or professional positions.

" Regular Wages Staff " means and includes all such Wages Staff employees as have or shall have been appointed to the Regular Wages Staff, and no other persons.

"Full Pension" means a pension payable under and in accordance with the provisions of this or the existing Scheme to a person who has retired after reaching the normal age of retirement.

" Reduced Pension " means any pension other than a full pension, payable or awarded to any person under and in accordance with the provisions of this or the existing Scheme.

" Operative date " means the date prescribed by the Order confirming this Scheme as the date upon which this amending Scheme is to come into operation.

" Existing member " means a contributing member of the existing Scheme at the operative date.

" Existing Pensioner " means a person alive at the operative date who on that date is receiving or is entitled to receive a full or reduced pension under the existing Scheme.

2. Continuance of Existing Scheme :

(1) The benefits provided by the existing Scheme shall continue to be paid under and in accordance with the terms thereof and without alteration to :—

(a) every existing pensioner whose right to pension accrued prior to the 1st April, 1956, and

(b) the personal representative of any deceased pensioner if the deceased's right to pension accrued prior to the said date.

(2) Nothing in this amending Scheme shall affect the rights of any of the persons mentioned in the preceding sub-article, nor shall this amending Scheme (save in so far as it makes retrospective provision for payment of increased contributions and pensions) affect any subsisting right or liability accrued to or incurred by any person under the existing Scheme prior to the operative date.

3. Amendment of Existing Scheme :

Subject to the provisions of Article 2 of this amending Scheme, the existing Scheme shall be amended so as to conform to the provisions hereinafter contained, and every provision of the existing Scheme which is inconsistent with the provisions hereinafter contained shall cease to have effect.

4. Membership :

(1) No person under twenty years of age (other than an existing member) can be or become a member of this Scheme. If an employee is appointed to the Regular Wages Staff before reaching twenty years of age, he shall, provided he is retained in the service of the Board on the Regular Wages Staff, become a member of this Scheme immediately he attains that age.

(2) Save where otherwise expressly provided, no person of fifty years of age or over can become a member of this Scheme.

(3) No person who ceases or who had ceased to be a member of this or of the existing Scheme shall be readmitted to membership save in accordance with the provisions in that behalf hereinafter contained.

(4) Subject as aforesaid :—

(a) every employee (other than a canal lock-keeper or railway level-crossing keeper) appointed to the Regular Wages Staff on or after the operative date shall become and be a member of this Scheme immediately upon the making of such appointment, and

(b) Every employee entitled on the operative date to apply for membership of the existing Scheme shall on the said date become and be a member of this Scheme.

(5) No person other than an existing member or a person readmitted to membership under and in accordance with the provisions hereof shall become a member of this Scheme except under this Article.

(6) Subject to the provisions of this Scheme in relation to promotion, a member who ceases to be employed by the Board on its Regular Wages Staff shall cease to be a member.

(7) Membership of this Scheme is not to be taken as conferring or implying any security of tenure.

5. Application to Existing Pensioners :

The provisions of this amending Scheme shall, in so far as the same may be applicable, apply to :—

(a) every existing pensioner whose right to pension accrued on or after the 1st day of April, 1956, and

(b) the personal representative of any deceased pensioner if the deceased's right to pension accrued on or after the said date.

6. Normal Age of Retirement :

For the purposes of this Scheme, the normal age of retirement shall be :—

for males—65 years, and

for females—60 years.

7. Full Pension :

(1) On retirement of a member who has reached the normal age of retirement, he shall be paid one or other of the following full pensions :—

Males :

(a) 33/6d. per week for life, or, in the alternative,

(b) 51/3d. per week for a period of five years and thereafter 20/0d. per week for life.

Females :

(a) 13/0d. per week for life, or in the alternative,

(b) 18/0d. per week for a period of ten years and thereafter 10/0d. per week for life.

(2) If any person becoming entitled on or after the operative date to a full pension desires to be paid at the alternative rate mentioned above, he must so elect by notice in writing addressed to the Board's Chief Accountant by whom such notice must be received not later than one calendar month prior to the date of actual retirement. In default of election, payment shall be at the appropriate rate first above mentioned.

(3) In the event of the death, within five years from the date of retirement, of a pensioner receiving or entitled to receive a full pension, if the total of the pension payments then already made does not equal or exceed—in the case of males, the sum of £435 ; in the case of females, the sum of £165—the pension shall continue to be paid to such pensioner's personal representative until the said appropriate total has been reached, whereupon all further payments and obligations hereunder shall cease.

8. Promotion :

(1) If a member of this Scheme is promoted in the service of the Board to a grade outside the Regular Wages Staff for which there is in existence a superannuation scheme (hereinafter referred to as " the other scheme ") which he is, as so promoted, qualified and entitled to join, he shall on such promotion cease to be a member of this Scheme and—

(a) if and when he becomes a member of the other scheme, the total amount of his contributions to the Fund shall be paid out of the Fund to the trustees of the fund maintained for the purposes of the other scheme, provided, however, that contributions shall not be paid over to a fund (or to any part of a fund) which is not approved by the Revenue Commissioners under Section 32 of the Finance Act, 1921, (or any Statutory modification or re-enactment thereof for the time being in force) ;

(b) if, after he has become a member of the other scheme, he is transferred back to the Wages Staff as a regular member thereof he shall, provided he pays, or there is paid on his behalf, an amount into the Fund equal to the total contributions he would have made to the Fund during the period he ceased to be a member on promotion, be readmitted a member of this Scheme notwithstanding that he may then exceed the age limit herein prescribed ;

(c) if he does not, as soon after promotion as is reasonably practicable, become a member of the other scheme, he shall be refunded the said total amount of his contributions to the Fund.

(2) If a member of this Scheme is promoted in the service of the Board to a grade outside the Regular Wages Staff for which there is not in existence a superannuation scheme such as is referred to in sub-article (1), he shall continue to be a member of this Scheme as if he were still a member of the Regular Wages Staff.

9. Reduced Pension :

(1) If the employment of any member of this Scheme having not less than twenty years service is, at any time within ten years of reaching the normal age of retirement, determined by the Board on the ground of ill-health (including any bodily or mental disablement), not resulting, in the opinion of the Board, from the member's own misconduct, such member shall be entitled to a reduced pension for life payable weekly and calculated as follows :—

(a) during the period until the pensioner reaches the age of 70—such part of the sum of 51/3d. or, in the case of a female member 18/0d. as is proportionate to the ratio which the number of years service bears to the number of years of possible service had such former member remained in the Board's employment until the normal age of retirement, and

(b) thereafter 20/0d. per week for males, or 10/0d. per week for females.

(2) If any member of this Scheme, having not less than twenty years' service, leaves the Board's employment at any time within ten years of his reaching normal age of retirement for reasons other than ill-health the Board may, at its discretion, if it considers the reason for his so leaving to have been sufficiently meritorious, award such employee a reduced pension at the like rate as would apply if his employment had been determined on the ground of ill-health.

(3) If any former member of this or of the existing Scheme in receipt of a reduced pension is re-employed by the Board, he shall, if and when reappointed to the Regular Wages Staff, surrender and forfeit all then present and future rights to payment of any such reduced pension as aforesaid, and shall, notwithstanding his age, be thereupon readmitted to membership of this Scheme and become liable to contribute to the Fund at the rate hereinafter provided and shall, notwithstanding his earlier retirement, be entitled to all the benefits hereof including (in the case of a pensioner re-employed because of recovery in health) a reduced pension hereunder if he should again cease before the normal age of retirement to be employed by reason of ill-health.

(4) Subject to the provisions of sub-article (3) of this Article every reduced pension shall continue to be paid for a period of not less than five years from the date of its award, and if any pensioner receiving or entitled to receive a reduced pension dies within such period, payment shall be continued to his personal representative until the said period has expired, provided however that the payments made to the personal representative of a deceased pensioner under this sub-article shall not, together with the pension payments made to the deceased before death, exceed in the case of males—£435, or in the case of females—£165.

10. National Service :

If any member of this Scheme is compelled to leave the service of the Board for service with the National Forces during an emergency, or if not so compelled, if any member wishes to leave the service of the Board for the purpose aforesaid and obtains from the Board leave of absence for such purpose, such former member shall, pr ovided that immediately upon the cessation of his national service he resumes employment with the Board as a member of the Regular Wages Staff, be readmitted to membership of this Scheme, and the Board will pay into the Fund an amount equivalent to the total contributions which would have been made by such former member had he not left the service of the Board for the said purpose, and such former member's service with the Board shall, but for the purpose of this Scheme only, be deemed to have been continuous notwithstanding such absence.

11. Refund of Contributions :

(1) Any member of this Scheme who ceases (otherwise than in accordance with Article 10) to be employed by the Board without becoming entitled to any pension, shall receive a refund of his contributionswithout interest subject to the provisions in sub-article (4) of this Article.

(2) If any former member of this or of the existing Scheme who has received a refund of his contributions under sub-article (1) of this Article is subsequently re-employed by the Board, and is reappointed to the Regular Wages Staff, he shall not be entitled merely by reason of such reappointment to be readmitted a member of this Scheme, but the Board may, at its discretion, and whether or not such former member exceeds the age limit herein prescribed, readmit him to membership upon such terms and conditions as the Board may think proper, including, if the Board so thinks fit, a condition that such former member shall pay an amount into the Fund equivalent to the total contributions (including the amount of the contributions already refunded) which he would have made to the Fund had he continued in the service of the Board without interruption. Upon readmission of any former member under the provisions of this sub-article, the Board may direct that his service shall, for the purpose of this Scheme, be deemed to have been continuous notwithstanding its interruption.

(3) If a member dies whilst in the service of the Board before retiring on pension, a refund of his contributions, without interest, shall be made from the Fund to his personal representative.

(4) The amount of any refund of contribution directed by this Article shall be paid out of the Fund by the Trustees, but, if the Board notify the Trustees that a debt is due to the Board from the member or deceased member who made the contributions, the Trustees shall either pay such debt to the Board and pay the balance to the recipient of the refund or, where the amount of the refund does not exceed the debt, pay the said amount to the Board.

12. Rate of Contribution :

Members shall contribute to this Scheme by payment into the Fund of the following rates :—

(a) Males—3/0d. per week,

(b) Females—1/3d. per week.

Contributions shall be deducted from the member's wages or sickness benefit.

13. Contributions of Existing Members :

(1) Every existing member shall be liable to contribute to this Scheme at his appropriate rate from the 1st day of April, 1956, or from the date of admission to membership of the existing Scheme, whichever date is the later.

(2) The amount thus due by each existing member in respect of arrears of contribution (credit being given for contributions made under the existing Scheme since the 1st April, 1956) shall be discharged by deducting (in addition to the current contributions) the difference between the present and former rate of contribution from his wages or sickness benefit until the said amount shall have been fully paid off.

14. Benefits and Contributions of Existing Pensioners :

(1) On and from the operative date every existing pensioner whose right to pension accrued on or after the 1st April, 1956, and the personal representative of any deceased pensioner if the deceased's right to pension accrued on or after the said date, shall be—

(a) liable to contribution to this Scheme at the rate herein provided as from the 1st April, 1956, to the date upon which the pension under the existing Scheme first became payable ;

(b) entitled as from the date upon which the pension under the existing Scheme first became payable, to payment of a like pension under this Scheme at the appropriate rate herein provided, which, with respect to full pension, shall be—

(i) in the case of males,

(a) 33/6d. per week if the existing pension is being paid at the rate of £1 per week.

(b) 51/3d. per week if the existing pension is being paid at the rate of 37/6d. per week.

(ii) in the case of females,

(a) 13/0d. per week if the existing pension is being paid at the rate of 10/0d. per week.

(b) 18/0d. per week if the existing pension is being paid at the rate of 13/0d. per week.

(iii) if any male pensioner or the personal representative of any deceased male pensioner, is being paid at the rate of 30/0d. per week under the existing Scheme, he shall be entitled to elect as to the rate at which payment is to be made under this Scheme. In default of election, which must be made in writing addressed to the Board's Chief Accountant and received by him not later than one calendar month after the operative date, payment under this Scheme shall be at the appropriate alternative rate mentioned in sub-article (1) of Article 7 of this Scheme.

(2) The amount thus due by each existing pensioner or by the personal representative of any deceased pensioner in respect of arrears of contribution (credit being given for contributions made under the existing Scheme since 1st day of April, 1956) shall be deducted from the amount likewise due to him in respect of arrears of pension (credit being taken for pension paid under the existing Scheme since the said date) and the balance, if any, shall be forthwith paid to him out of the Fund.

(3) If the said amount due by any such person as aforesaid exceeds the said amount payable to him, the excess shall be discharged by deducting the difference between the present and former rate of contribution from the increased pension payable to him until such excess shall have been fully paid off.

15. Recovery of Contributions :

If any contribution is not so deducted as aforesaid, it shall be paid into the Fund by the member or pensioner or personal representative of a deceased pensioner liable to pay the same in accordance with any direction of the Trustees in that behalf.

GIVEN under my Official Seal, this 31st day of October, 1957.

SEÁN F. LEMASS,

Minister for Industry and Commerce.

Explanatory Note.

The purpose of the Order is to confirm an amending superannuation scheme which provides for increased pensions for regular wages staff of C.I.E.