S.I. No. 75/1998:

HOUSES OF THE OIREACHTAS (MEMBERS) PENSIONS (AMENDMENT) SCHEME, 1998.

HOUSES OF THE OIREACHTAS (MEMBERS) PENSIONS (AMENDMENT) SCHEME, 1998.

I, CHARLIE McCREEVY, Minister for Finance, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 6A (inserted by section 5 of the Oireachtas (Allowances to Members) and Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices (Amendment) Act, 1960 (No. 12 of 1960), and amended by section 4 of the Oireachtas (Allowances to Members) and Ministerial, Parliamentary and Judicial Offices (Amendment) Act, 1983 (No. 32 of 1983), and by section 7 of the Oireachtas (Allowances to Members) (Amendment) Act, 1994 (No. 21 of 1994)) of the Oireachtas (Allowances to Members) Act, 1938 (No. 34 of 1938), hereby make the following scheme:

1. (1) This Scheme may be cited as the Houses of the Oireachtas (Members) Pensions (Amendment) Scheme, 1998.

(2) This Scheme shall be deemed to have come into operation on the 15th day of May, 1997.

2. In this Scheme--

"the new Scheme" has the meaning assigned to it by Clause 2 of the Houses of the Oireachtas (Members) Pensions (Amendment) (No. 2) Scheme, 1992 ( S.I. No. 354 of 1992 ):

"the Scheme" means the Houses of the Oireachtas (Members) Pensions Scheme within the meaning of section 1 of the Oireachtas (Allowances to Members) and Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices (Amendment) Act, 1992 (No. 3 of 1992), as amended by the Houses of the Oireachtas (Members) Pensions (Amendment) Scheme, 1992 ( S.I. No. 300 of 1992 ), the Houses of the Oireachtas (Members) Pensions (Amendment) (No. 2) Scheme, 1992 the Houses of the Oireachtas (Members) Pensions (Amendment) Scheme, 1993 ( S.I. No. 111 of 1993 ), and the Houses of the Oireachtas (Members) Pensions (Amendment) Scheme, 1997 ( S.I. No. 212 of 1997 ).

3. The Scheme is hereby amended--

(a) in subclause (3)(c) of Clause 5H of the new Scheme, by the substitution of "within two years" for "within three months", and

(b) in both subclauses (b)(ii) and (c) of Clause 5K of the new Scheme, by the substitution of "the age of 65 years" for the age of 50 years".

4. Subclauses (2) to (4) of Clause 5C of the new Scheme shall be deemed never to have had effect.

GIVEN under my Official Seal, this 26th day of March, 1998.

CHARLIE McCREEVY,

Minister for Finance.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.

This scheme makes certain amendments to the pension scheme which applies for former members of the Oireachtas. These amendments include certain improvements in the ill-health retirement provisions of that scheme and the deletion of a provision which prohibited reckoning of periods of service as pensionable service for the purposes of the Oireachtas (Members) Pensions Scheme, where the same periods were also reckonable for the purposes of another pension paid wholly or in part out of public funds.