Harbours Act 2015

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Superannuation schemes of transferred company

26. (1) Subject to subsection (7), a transferred company may prepare and submit to the local authority chief executive concerned a scheme or schemes for the granting of superannuation benefits to or in respect of such members of staff (including a chief executive) as it decides.

(2) Every such scheme shall fix the time and conditions of retirement for all persons to or in respect of whom superannuation benefits are payable under the scheme and different times and conditions may be fixed in respect of different classes of persons.

(3) Every such scheme may be amended or revoked by a subsequent scheme prepared, submitted and approved under this section.

(4) A scheme submitted to the local authority chief executive concerned under this section shall, if approved of by the local authority chief executive, with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, be carried out by the transferred company concerned in accordance with its terms.

(5) (a) A scheme made under this section shall make provision for appeals.

(b) A person who, on a company transfer day, is a member of a scheme referred to in paragraph (a) of subsection (7), may, if any dispute arises as to the claim of such a person to, or to the amount of, any superannuation benefit payable in pursuance of a scheme referred to in paragraph (a) of subsection (7) , submit the dispute to the Minister who shall refer it to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, whose decision shall be final.

(6) Subject to subsection (7) , superannuation benefits shall not be granted by a transferred company nor shall any other arrangements be entered into by a transferred company for the provision of such benefit to a member of the staff of a transferred company, otherwise than in accordance with a scheme under this section, or otherwise as may be approved of by the local authority chief executive concerned, with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.

(7) (a) A superannuation scheme made by a transferred company under section 40 of the Act of 1996 and which is in place immediately before a company transfer day, or continued in force under section 41 of the Act of 1996, shall continue in force and apply to each person to whom it applied immediately before a company transfer day.

(b) Should a transferred company have such a scheme referred to in paragraph (a) in operation immediately before the company transfer day, that scheme may be provided for the benefit of such members of staff (including a chief executive), other than members of staff referred to in paragraph (a), of a transferred company as the transferred company concerned decides.

(c) In relation to a scheme referred to in paragraph (a), a transferred company may, or, if directed by the local authority chief executive concerned shall, in the manner specified in the direction, amend or revoke, the scheme as if it were a scheme made under this section, but, save in accordance with a collective agreement negotiated with a recognised trade union or staff association, no amendment shall be made to the scheme that would result in superannuation benefits that may be granted by the scheme or the terms or conditions in relation thereto being less favourable to the members of the transferred company’s staff and other persons concerned than those to which they were entitled under the scheme before the making of the amendment.

(d) Superannuation benefits granted under schemes referred to in paragraph (a) to persons who, immediately before the transferred company’s relevant vesting day for the purposes of the Act of 1996, were members of the staff of a harbour authority within the meaning of the Harbours Act 1946 or the Department of the Marine, as the case may be, and the terms and conditions relating to those benefits shall not be less favourable to those persons than those to which they were entitled immediately before that day.

(e) In the case of members of staff of Dún Laoghaire Harbour Company disbursement of superannuation benefits which may be granted to or in respect of such of those members who, immediately before the relevant vesting day for the purposes of the Act of 1996, were members of the staff of the Department of the Marine, shall be on conditions no less favourable to such members than those that would apply if those benefits had continued to be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.

(8) Where the Minister is satisfied, after consultation with the relevant transferred company, local authority chief executive and the trustees of the superannuation scheme concerned, that—

(a) a fund established, or continued in existence, by a transferred company pursuant to sections 40 or 41 of the Act of 1996 does not comprise sufficient moneys as will enable the payment from that fund of superannuation benefits under the scheme or schemes concerned as and when those benefits fall due for payment, and

(b) the said company does not have resources from which there could be paid the said benefits as and when they fall due for payment,

then the Minister may, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, pay to the trustees concerned such amount in respect of liabilities of the said scheme or schemes that have arisen prior to the relevant vesting day for the purposes of the Act of 1996 as he or she may determine.

(9) All moneys from time to time required by the Minister or the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to meet sums which are, or may become, payable by him or her under subsection (8) shall, with the approval of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, be advanced by the Minister for Finance out of the Central Fund or the growing produce thereof.