S.I. No. 154/1950:

GÁRDA SÍOCHÁNA PENSIONS ORDER, 1950.

GÁRDA SÍOCHÁNA PENSIONS ORDER, 1950.

WHEREAS by section 13 of the Police Forces Amalgamation Act, 1925 (No. 7 of 1925), power is conferred on the Minister for Justice, with the sanction of the Minister for Finance, from time to time by order to authorise the grant and payment of pensions, allowances, and gratuities to members of the Gárda Síochána and to their widows, children and dependants :

AND WHEREAS it is enacted by subsection (3) of the said section 13 that every statute, order, or regulation in force immediately before the commencement of the said Act authorising the grant or payment of pensions, allowances, or gratuities to members of the Dublin Metropolitan Police or their widows, children, or dependants shall, until varied by an order made under that section and subject to any such variation, continue to apply with certain modifications to members of the Gárda Síochána who immediately before the commencement of the said Act were members of the Dublin Metropolitan Police :

AND WHEREAS the Dublin Metropolitan Police Pensions Order, 1922, authorising the payment of pensions, allowances and gratuities to members of the Dublin Metropolitan Police and their widows, children and dependants was in force immediately before the commencement of the said Act :

NOW, the Minister for Justice, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by section 13 of the Police Forces Amalgamation Act, 1925 (No. 7 of 1925), and of every and any other power him in this behalf enabling, hereby makes, with the sanction of the Minister for Finance, testified by his signature hereto, the following Order :

1. This Order may be cited as the Gárda Síochana Pensions Order, 1950.

2. This Order and the Gárda Síochána Pensions Orders, 1925 to 1942, may be cited together as the Gárda Síochána Pensions Orders, 1925 to 1950.

3. The Interpretation Act, 1937 (No. 38 of 1937), applies to this Order.

4. In this Order--

the expression " the Order of 1922 " means the Dublin Metropolitan Police Pensions Order, 1922, as amended or varied by subsequent orders ;

the expression " the Order of 1925 " means the Gárda Síochána Pensions Order, 1925 ( S. R. & O. No. 63 of 1925 ), as amended by subsequent orders ;

the expression " the Order of 1930 " means the Gárda Síochána Pensions Order, 1930 ;

the expression " the No. 2 Order of 1938 " means the Gárda Síochána Pensions (No. 2) Order, 1938 ( S. R. & O. No. 234 of 1938 ).

5.--(1) For the purpose of this Article the appropriate sum in relation to a widow's pension or children's allowance shall be--

(a) where the amount of the pension or allowance does not exceed £100 a year, 50 per cent. of the amount of the pension or allowance,

(b) where the amount of the pension exceeds £100 a year but does not exceed £125 a year, £50 a year,

(c) where the amount of the pension exceeds £125 a year but does not exceed £150 a year, 40 per cent. of the amount of pension,

(d) where the amount of the pension exceeds £150 a year but does not exceed £200 a year, £60 a year ;

(e) where the amount of the pension exceeds £200 a year but does not exceed £346 3s. 1d. a year, 30 per cent. of the amount of pension,

(f) where the amount of the pension exceeds £346 3s. 1d. a year, sufficient to bring the amount of the pension to £450 a year.

(2) Every widow's ordinary pension calculated under Scale (ii) in paragraph (a) in Part II of the First Schedule to the Order of 1922, every widow's special pension calculated under rule 7 in the said paragraph (a) and every allowance calculated under rule 9 of the said Part II in respect of service which ended since the 2nd day of April, 1925, and before the 1st day of July, 1940, shall be increased as on and from the 1st day of April, 1949, to whichever of the following amounts is the lesser--

(i) the amount of pension or allowance payable in respect of a member of the Force of equivalent status and service whose service ended on the 31st day of October, 1946 ;

(ii) the amount arrived at by adding the appropriate sum to the pension or allowance.

(3) Where a widow's ordinary pension calculated under Scale (ii) in paragraph (a) in Part II of the First Schedule to the Order of 1922 or a widow's special pension calculated under rule 7 in the said paragraph (a) is or was, during any period, less than it would have been if it had been calculated under scale (i) in the said paragraph (a) as amended by this Order, it shall be increased, as respects that period, by the amount of the deficiency.

(4) Where an allowance calculated under rule 9 of Part II of the First Schedule to the Order of 1922 is or was, during any period, less than it would have been if it had been calculated under rule 10 of the said Part II as amended by this Order, it shall be increased as respects that period by the amount of the deficiency.

6. Article 5 of the Order of 1922 is hereby amended by the deletion in paragraph (b) of the words from " where the injury " to " non-accidental."

7. Article 6 of the Order of 1922 is hereby amended--

I. by the substitution for the words from " his children " to " the age of sixteen years " in paragraph (a) of the words " his children shall be entitled to the allowances provided for in the First Schedule to this Order " ;

II. by the insertion of the following paragraph after paragraph (c) :

" (d) Where a member of the force dies whilst in the force from the effects of an injury received in the execution of his duty without his own default, or, having been granted a pension in respect of any such injury, dies from the effects of such injury, his mother, if she was wholly dependent on him at the time of his death and if he does not leave a widow and children, shall be entitled to a mother's pension."

8. The Order of 1922 is hereby amended by the addition after Article 6 of the following :

" 6A. (1) Where a member of the force dies while serving in the force, or where a former member of the force, having been granted a pension, dies and no other award is payable under the Dublin Metropolitan Police Pensions Orders, 1922 and 1924, and the Gárda Síochána Pensions Orders, 1925 to 1950, the Minister--

(a) may, if he thinks fit, pay a gratuity to any of the dependants of such member who were dependent on him to any degree at the time of his death or apply the gratuity for the benefit of such dependants, and

(b) if either no gratuity is paid under subparagraph (a) of this paragraph or if the amount of the gratuity or gratuities so paid does not exhaust the aggregate amount specified in paragraph (2) of this Article, shall pay a gratuity to the legal personal representatives of such member.

(2) The aggregate amount of all gratuities paid under paragraph (1) of this Article shall be

(i) in the case of a member of the force who dies while serving in the force, the whole of his rateable deductions, and

(ii) in the case of a former member of the force who, having been granted a pension, dies, the amount by which the whole of his rateable deductions exceeds the total amount of pension paid to him."

Article 9 of the Order of 1922 is hereby amended--

(i) by the deletion in paragraph (1) of the words from " but in the case " to " without his own default " ;

(ii) by the addition after paragraph (2) of the following paragraph :

" (3) When reckoning, for the purposes of paragraph (a) of Part I of the First Schedule to this Order, the approved service of a member of the force, being a member who was appointed (or, if he had two or more separate periods of service, was first appointed) to the force after his twenty-seventh birthday and not earlier than the 14th day of January, 1922, so much of the approved service as is service after his forty-seventh birthday shall be doubled, but the said paragraph shall have effect as if ' with an additional 1/60th of the annual pay for the 21st and every subsequent completed year of approved service ' were not contained therein."

10. Article 11 of the Order of 1922 is hereby amended by the deletion of the words from " where a member " to " previous service " where the latter words first occur and by the substitution of the following :

" A member of the force who was previously a member of the force or of the Gárda Síochána and retired therefrom without a pension, and joined or rejoined the force shall be entitled to have reckoned as approved service the period of approved service which he was entitled to have reckoned at the end of his previous service."

11. Article 13 of the Order of 1922 is hereby amended--

(i) by the deletion in paragraph (2) of the words " whether the injury was accidental or not and ",

(ii) by the deletion in paragraph (5) of the words " a non-accidental."

12. Article 21 of the Order of 1922 is hereby amended by the deletion in paragraph (2) of the words " or whilst on a journey necessary to enable him to report for duty or to return home after duty " and by the deletion of paragraph (3).

13. The First Schedule to the Order of 1922 is hereby amended by the addition to paragraph (a) in Part I of the following :

" In the case of a member of the force whose approved service is reckoned pursuant to paragraph (3) of Article 9 of this Order and who is in receipt of any pension or pensions payable out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas or out of the Central Fund or out of the funds of a local authority not being a pension under the Dublin Metropolitan Police Pensions Orders, 1922 and 1924, and the Gárda Síochána Pensions Orders, 1925 to 1950 (herein referred to as a Gárda Pension), his Gárda pension shall, for any period in respect of which he is in receipt of the first mentioned pension or pensions, be reduced so that, with the said first mentioned pension or pensions, it shall not exceed in the aggregate two-thirds of the annual pay, but the maximum reduction which may be so made shall be the amount by which the Gárda pension exceeds the Gárda pension which the member would have been entitled to receive but for the application to him of the said paragraph (3)."

14. Part I of the First Schedule to the Order of 1922 is hereby amended--

(i) by the deletion in rule 3 of paragraphs (b) and (c) and by the deletion of the words " if the injury is non-accidental " in paragraph (a),

(ii) by the deletion in the proviso to rule 4 of the words " if the injury was non-accidental " and " and otherwise in scale number 4 in the said table," and

(iii) by the deletion of " non-accidental " in Scale No. 1 and Scale No. 3 in the Table of Scales of Pensions.

15. The First Schedule to the Order of 1922 is hereby amended--

(a) by the substitution in Scale (i) in rule 6 in Part II of " £45 " for " £30 ", " £60 " for " £40 " and " £75 " for " £50 " ;

(b) by the deletion in Scale (ii) in the said rule of the words, " subject, however, in the case of the widow of a pensioner, to a deduction equal to twenty-five per cent. of the amount for each complete year for which her husband's pension had been drawn."

16. The First Schedule to the Order of 1922 is hereby amended by the substitution in Part II for Rule 9 of the following rule :

" 9. Member of the force or pensioner dying as the result of injury received in the execution of duty.--The allowance in respect of each child, being a child under the age of sixteen years or who, being of that age or over that age and under the age of twenty-one years, is receiving full-time instruction at an educational establishment or is apprenticed to a trade or profession in which he does not receive any remuneration other than a return of fees, shall be an annual allowance of one-fifteenth of the annual pay, but if such member or pensioner leaves no widow, or as from the death of his widow, the allowance may be increased up to two-fifteenths of the annual pay, but the aggregate amount paid in any year by way of children's allowances when added to the widow s pension, if any, shall not exceed two-thirds of such pay.

17. The First Schedule to the Order of 1922 is hereby amended--

(a) by the substitution in Rule 10 in Part II of " £15 " for " £10 ", " £18 " for " £12 " and " £22 10s." for " £15 " ;

(b) by the deletion in Rule 10 in Part II of the words " Provided that the aggregate amount of such allowances in any year shall not exceed £30, £40 and £50 in the three cases respectively " and the words " and the aggregate amount of any allowances."

18. The First Schedule to the Order of 1922 is hereby amended by the insertion in Part II after Rule 11 of the following rule :

" (dd) Mothers' Pensions.

11A. The pension shall be at the rate of--

(i) where the deceased left a widow but no children one-eighteenth of the annual pay,

(ii) where the deceased left a child or children but no widow, one-ninth of the annual pay,

(iii) where the deceased left neither a widow nor any children, one-third of the annual pay."

19. Rule 16 of the First Schedule to the Order of 1922 is hereby amended--

(i) by the substitution of the words " former member of the force " for the word " pensioner."

(ii) by the substitution of the words " before the termination of his service in the force " for the words " before he retired on pension."

20.--(1) For the purpose of this Article the appropriate sum in relation to a widow's pension or children's allowance shall be--

(a) where the amount of the pension or allowance does not exceed £100 a year, 50 per cent. of the amount of the pension or allowance,

(b) where the amount of the pension exceeds £100 a year but does not exceed £125 a year, £50 a year,

(c) where the amount of the pension exceeds £125 a year but does not exceed £150 a year, 40 per cent. of the amount of the pension,

(d) where the amount of the pension exceeds £150 a year but does not exceed £200 a year, £60 a year,

(e) where the amount of the pension exceeds £200 a year but does not exceed £346 3s. 1d. a year, 30 per cent. of the amount of the pension,

(f) where the amount of the pension exceeds £346 3s. 1d. a year, sufficient to bring the amount of the pension to £450 a year.

(2) Every widow's ordinary pension calculated under Scale (ii) in paragraph A in Part II of the First Schedule to the Order of 1925, every widow's special pension calculated under subparagraph 2 in the said paragraph A and every allowance calculated under subparagraph 1 in paragraph C of the said Part II in respect of service which ended before the 1st day of July, 1940, shall be increased as on and from the 1st day of April, 1949, to whichever of the following amounts is the lesser -

(i) the amount of pension or allowance payable in respect of a member of the Force of equivalent status and service whose service ended on the 31st October, 1946 ;

(ii) the amount arrived at by adding the appropriate sum to the pension or allowance.

(3) Where a widow's ordinary pension calculated under Scale (ii) in paragraph A in Part II of the First Schedule to the Order of 1925 or a widow's special pension calculated under subparagraph 2 of the said paragraph A is or was, during any period, less than it would have been if it had been calculated under Scale (i) in the said Part II as amended by this Order, it shall be increased, as respects that period, by the amount of the deficiency.

(4) Where an allowance calculated under subparagraph 1 of paragraph C of Part II of the First Schedule to the Order of 1925 is or was, during any period, less than it would have been if it had been calculated under subparagraph 2 in the said paragraph C as amended by this Order, it shall be increased, as respects that period, by the amount of the deficiency.

21. Article 5 of the Order of 1925 is hereby amended by the deletion in paragraph (b) of the words from " where the injury " to " non-accidental."

22. Article 6 of the Order of 1925 is hereby amended by the substitution for the words from " his children " to " the age of 16 years " in paragraph (a) of the words " his children shall be entitled to the allowances provided for in the First Schedule to this Order."

23. The following paragraph shall be inserted before the proviso to Article 7 of the Order of 1925 :

" Subject to the provisions of this Order, where a member of the force dies whilst serving in the force from the effects of an injury received in the execution of his duty without his own default, or, having been granted a pension in respect of any such injury, dies from the effects of such an injury, his mother, if she was wholly dependent on him at the time of his death and if he does not leave a widow and children, shall be entitled to a mother's pension."

24. The Order of 1925 is hereby amended by the addition immediately after Article 7 of the following :

" 7A. (1) Where a member of the force dies while serving in the force, or where a former member of the force, having been granted a pension, dies and no other award is payable under the Gárda Síochána Pensions Orders, 1925 to 1950, the Minister

(a) may, if he thinks fit, pay a gratuity to any of the dependants of such member who were dependent on him to any degree at the time of his death or apply the gratuity for the benefit of such dependants, and

(b) if either no gratuity is paid under subparagraph (a) of this paragraph or the amount of the gratuity or gratuities so paid does not exhaust the aggregate amount specified in paragraph (2) of this Article, shall pay a gratuity to the legal personal representatives of such member.

(2) The aggregate amount of all gratuities paid under paragraph (1) of this Article shall be--

(i) in the case of a member who dies while serving as a member of the force, the whole of his rateable deductions, and

(ii) in case of a former member of the force who, having been granted a pension dies, the amount by which the whole of his rateable deductions exceeds the total amount of pension paid to him."

25. Article 9 of the Order of 1925 is hereby amended--

(i) by the deletion in paragraph (1) of the words from " but shall not " to " without his own default " ;

(ii) by the deletion in paragraph (5) of " (other than service before attaining the age of 20 years) " ;

(iii) by the deletion in paragraph (6) of the words from " Where a member " to " previous service " where the latter words first occur and by the substitution of the following :

" A member of the force who was previously a member of the force or of the Dublin Metropolitan Police Force, and retired therefrom without a pension and joined or rejoined the force, shall be entitled to have reckoned as approved service the period of approved service which he was entitled to have reckoned for pension purposes at the end of his previous service".

(iv) by the addition after paragraph (8) of the following paragraph :

" (9) When reckoning for the purposes of paragraph A of Part I of the First Schedule to this Order, the approved service of a member of the force who was serving as such on the 1st day of January, 1950, being a member who was appointed (or, if he had two or more separate periods of service was first appointed) to the force after his twenty-seventh birthday, such of the approved service as is service after his forty-seventh birthday shall be doubled, but the said paragraph shall have effect as if ' with an additional 1/60th of the annual pay for the 21st and every subsequent completed year of approved service ' were not contained therein."

26. Article 10 of the Order of 1925 is hereby amended--

(i) by the deletion in paragraph (2) of the words " whether the injury was accidental or not and ",

(ii) by the deletion in paragraph (5) of the words " a non-accidental ".

27. Article 17 of the Order of 1925 is hereby amended by the deletion in subparagraph (a) of paragraph 2 of the words " or whilst on a journey necessary to enable him to report for duty or to return home after duty " and by the deletion of paragraph (3).

28. The First Schedule to the Order of 1925 is hereby amended by the addition to paragraph A in Part I of the following :

" In the case of a member of the force whose approved service is reckoned pursuant to paragraph (9) of Article 9 of this Order and who is in receipt of any pension or pensions payable out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas or out of the Central Fund or out of the funds of a local authority not being a pension under the Gárda Síochána Pensions Orders, 1925 to 1950 (herein referred to as a Gárda Pension), his Gárda Pension shall, for any period in respect of which he is in receipt of the first-mentioned pension or pensions, be reduced so that, with the said first-mentioned pension or pensions, it shall not exceed in the aggregate two-thirds of the annual pay, but the maximum reduction which may be so made shall be the amount by which the Gárda pension exceeds the Gárda pension which the member would have been entitled to receive but for the application to him of the said paragraph (9)."

29. Part I of the First Schedule to the Order of 1925 is hereby amended--

(i) by the deletion in paragraph B of Clauses (b) and (c) and by the deletion of the words " if the injury is non-accidental," in Clause (a),

(ii) by the deletion in the proviso to subparagraph 2 of paragraph B of the words " if the injury was non-accidental " and " and otherwise in scale number 4 in the said table ", and

(iii) by the deletion of " non-accidental " in Scale No. 1 and Scale No. 3 in the Table of Scales of Pensions.

30. The First Schedule to the Order of 1925 is hereby amended--

(a) by the substitution in Scale (i) in paragraph A in Part II of " £45 " for " £30 ", " £60 " for " £40 " and " £75 " for " £50 " ;

(b) by the deletion in Scale (ii) in the said paragraph of the words " subject, however, in the case of the widow of a pensioner, to a deduction equal to twenty-five per cent. of the amount for each complete year for which her husband's pension had been drawn ".

31. The First Schedule to the Order of 1925 is hereby amended by the substitution for subparagraph 1 of paragraph C in Part II of the following :

" 1. Member of the force or pensioner dying as the result of injury received in the execution of duty.--The allowance in respect of each child, being a child under the age of sixteen years or who, being of that age or over that age and under the age of twenty-one years, is receiving full-time instruction at an educational establishment or is apprenticed to a trade or profession in which he does not receive any remuneration other than a return of fees, shall be an annual allowance of one-fifteenth of the annual pay, but if such member or pensioner leaves no widow, or as from the death of his widow, the allowance may be increased up to two-fifteenths of the annual pay, but the aggregate amount paid in any year by way of children's allowances when added to the widow's pension, if any, shall not exceed two-thirds of such pay."

32. The First Schedule to the Order of 1925 is hereby amended--

(a) by the substitution in subparagraph 2 of paragraph C in Part II of " £15 " for " £10 ", " £18 " for " £12 " and " £22 10s. " for " £15 " ;

(b) by the deletion in subparagraph 2 of the said paragraph C of the words " Provided that the aggregate amount of such allowances in any year shall not exceed £30, £40 and £50 in the three cases respectively " and the words " and the aggregate amount of any allowances ".

33. The First Schedule to the Order of 1925 is hereby amended by the insertion in Part II after paragraph D of the following paragraph :

" DD. Mothers' Pensions.

1. The pension shall be at the rate of--

(a) where the deceased left a widow but no children, one-eighteenth of the annual pay,

(b) where the deceased left a child or children but no widow, one-ninth of the annual pay,

(c) where the deceased left neither a widow nor any children, one-third of the annual pay."

34. Rule 4 of Part III of the First Schedule to the Order of 1925 is hereby amended--

(i) by the substitution of the words " a former member of the force " for the word " pensioner ",

(ii) by the substitution of the words " before the termination of his service in the force " for the words " before he retired on pension ".

35. Article 4 of the Order of 1930 is hereby amended by the insertion in sub-rule (3) therein contained of the words " and one-seventh " after the word " fifty-two ".

36. Paragraph 4 of the No. 2 Order of 1938 is hereby amended by the deletion of the definition of the expression " non-accidental injury ".

37. Paragraph 7 of the No. 2 Order of 1938 is hereby amended by the deletion of subparagraph (a) and of the words " a non-accidental " in subparagraph (b).

38. Paragraph 8 of the No. 2 Order of 1938 is hereby amended by the deletion of " a non-accidental " in subparagraph (b).

39. Paragraph 10 of the No. 2 Order of 1938 is hereby amended by the deletion in subparagraphs (1) and (2) of the words " under the age of sixteen years at his death " and the words " until he or she attains the age of sixteen years ".

40. Paragraph 12 of the No. 2 Order of 1938 is hereby amended--

(I) by the substitution in clause (i) of subparagraph (b) of the words " twenty-nine pounds, ten shillings " for the words " nineteen pounds, ten shillings " ;

(II) by the substitution in clause (ii) of subparagraph (b) of the words " thirty-four pounds " for the words " twenty-two pounds, ten shillings " ;

(III) by the deletion of clause (iii) of subparagraph (b).

41.--(1) Save as provided by paragraph (2) of this Article, the amendments effected by this Order shall not apply in relation to the members of the force who retired from or died while serving in the force before the making of this Order.

(2) The amendments effected by Articles 15, 17, 30, 32 and 40 of this Order shall apply in relation to the members of the force who retired from or died while serving in the force during the period which began on the 3rd day of April, 1925, and ended on the making of this Order and shall so apply with effect as on and from the date on which the relevant pension or allowance became payable or the 1st day of April, 1949 (whichever is the later), but in the case of members of the force who retired from or died while serving in the force during the period which began on the 6th day of January, 1936, and ended on the 31st day of March, 1949, the said amendments shall apply in respect of the period commencing on the date on which the relevant pension or allowance became payable or the 1st day of April, 1947 (whichever is the later) and ending on the 31st day March, 1949, with the following modifications--

(a) the references in paragraph (a) of the said Article 15 to " £45 ", " £60 " and " £75 " shall be respectively construed as references to " £40 ", " £50 " and " £60 ",

(b) the reference in paragraph (a) of the said Article 17 to " £15 " where it first occurs and the references to " £18 " and " £22 10s." shall be respectively construed as references to " £15 ", " £17 10s." and " £20 ",

(c) the references in paragraph (a) of the said Article 30 to " £45 ", " £60 " and " £75 " shall be respectively construed as references to " £40 ", " £50 " and " £60 ",

(d) the reference in paragraph (a) of the said Article 32 to " £15 " where it first occurs and the references to " £18 " and " £22 10s." shall be respectively construed as references to " £15 ", " £17 10s." and " £20 ", and

(e) the references in the said Article 40 to " twenty-nine pounds, ten shillings " and " thirty-four pounds " shall be respectively construed as references to " twenty-five pounds " and " twenty-seven pounds ".

GIVEN under the Official Seal of the Minister for Justice, this 25th day of May, 1950.

(Signed) SEÁN MAC EOIN.

I hereby sanction the foregoing Order.

(Signed) P. McGILLIGAN,

Minister for Finance.

Note :--In accordance with subsection (4) of section 13 of the Police Forces Amalgamation Act, 1925, the above Order has been approved by Resolution of each House of the Oireachtas.