Financial emergency measures in the public interest act 2013

• Act Number: 18
• Enactment Date: 05 June 2013

Number 18 of 2013
FINANCIAL EMERGENCY MEASURES IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST ACT 2013
ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS
Section
1. Interpretation.
2. Reduction in remuneration of public servants who earn more than €65,000.
3. Consequential amendments of Act of 2009.
4. Amendment of definition of “pensioner” in Act of 2010.
5. Reduction in certain public service pensions.
6. Consequential amendments of Act of 2010.
7. Pay scales: suspension, subject to exceptions, for certain period.
8. Exemption, etc., from operation of section 7 in certaincircumstances.
9. Certain pension rights not affected.
10. Amendment of Schedule to Act of 2009.
11. Amendment of Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2009.
12. Review of this Act and certain enactments of like character.
13. Short title.
Acts Referred to
Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010 2010, No. 24 Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2009 2009, No. 5 Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Act 2009 2009, No. 41 Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2010 2010, No. 38 Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Amendment) Act 2011 2011, No. 39 Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 1997, No. 20 Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Act 2012 2012, No. 37 Public Service Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2004 2004, No. 7
Number 18 of 2013
FINANCIAL EMERGENCY MEASURES IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST ACT 2013
AN ACT, IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST, TO PROVIDE FOR—
(A) THE REDUCTION OF THE REMUNERATION OF CERTAIN PUBLIC SERVANTS (INCLUDING MEMBERS OF THE HOUSES OF THE OIREACHTAS, THE JUDICIARY AND CERTAIN OFFICE HOLDERS);
(B) THE REDUCTION OF THE AMOUNT OF THE PAYMENT OF PENSION OR OTHER BENEFITS (OTHER THAN LUMP SUMS) PAYABLE TO OR IN RESPECT OF CERTAIN PERSONS WHO ARE OR WERE IN THE PUBLIC SERVICE (INCLUDING MEMBERS AND FORMER MEMBERS OF THE HOUSES OF THE OIREACHTAS, FORMER MEMBERS OF THE JUDICIARY AND FORMER HOLDERS OF CERTAIN OFFICES) UNDER AN OCCUPATIONAL PENSION SCHEME OR PENSION ARRANGEMENT (BY WHATEVER NAME CALLED); AND
(C) THE ALTERATION OF THE OPERATION OF SCALES OF PAY FOR PUBLIC SERVANTS (INCLUDING THE SUSPENSION OF THE AWARDING, FOR A CERTAIN PERIOD, OF INCREMENTS UNDER THOSE SCALES),
AND TO PROVIDE FOR RELATED MATTERS.
[5th June, 2013]
WHEREAS budgetary and fiscal measures have been taken by the State since 2009 to address a serious disturbance in the economy and a decline in the economic circumstances of the State that have occurred;
AND WHEREAS it is necessary for the State to achieve further significant savings in its expenditure, both directly and indirectly, on remuneration and in its expenditure on public service pensions as a contribution to the reduction of the shortfall between revenue and expenditure that is needed to put debt on a downward path;
AND WHEREAS the State is availing itself of a financial assistance programme established by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund with funding provided by the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism, the European Financial Stability Facility, the bilateral lenders (the United Kingdom, the Kingdom of Sweden and the Kingdom of Denmark) and the International Monetary Fund and it is necessary to adopt a range of measures to meet commitments included in that programme to address the economic crisis in the State;
AND WHEREAS it is necessary for the State to take measures as part of remedial action to maintain the State’s path toward correcting the excessive deficit by 2015 in line with the recommendation to that effect of the Council of the European Union (Council Recommendation with a view to bringing to an end the situation of an excessive deficit in Ireland of 7 December 2010);
BE IT THEREFORE ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:
	Interpretation.	1.— (1) In this Act—
	“Act of 2009” means the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (No. 2) Act 2009 ;
	“Act of 2010” means the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2010 ;
	“Act of 2011” means the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest (Amendment) Act 2011 ;
	“Act of 2012” means the Public Service Pensions (Single Scheme and Other Provisions) Act 2012 ;
	“Minister” means the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.
	(2) References in this Act—
	(a) to an increment that may be awarded to a public servant are references to an increment, provided for in the applicable pay scale, that may be awarded to the public servant subject to there being satisfied the one or more conditions that are required by the pay scale, or a written statement governing its operation, to be satisfied before an award of such an increment may be made, and
	(b) to a point on a pay scale shall be read accordingly.
	Reduction in remuneration of public servants who earn more than €65,000.	2.— The Act of 2009 is amended by inserting the following sections after section 2:
	“Public servants’ remuneration: reduction, with effect from 1 July 2013, for certain public servants.
	2A.— (1) In this section—
	(a) a reference to a relevant provision shall, other than in the case of a public servant to whom section 10 (2) of the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act 2013 relates, be read as a reference to that provision as it has effect, subject to any direction given under section 6, by virtue of the operation of section 2;
	(b) a reference to the annual remuneration of a public servant is a reference to the public servant’s annual basic salary, together with any fixed, periodic allowance that is—
	(i) reckonable for the purposes of calculating a pension entitlement of the public servant, and
	(ii) paid to the public servant as part of his or her annual remuneration,
	and, for the purposes of this section, the definition of ‘public servant’ in section 1 shall apply as if in paragraph (e) of that definition the words ‘who was appointed to judicial office before the commencement of section 10 of the FinancialEmergency Measures in the Public Interest (Amendment) Act 2011’ were omitted.
	(2) A relevant provision that fixes the remuneration, or any part of the remuneration, of a public servant whose annual remuneration exceeds €65,000 shall be taken to have been amended, with effect on and from 1 July 2013, in accordance with this section.
	(3) Where the remuneration of a public servant is fixed by a relevant provision, then the relevant provision shall be taken to have been amended so that the remuneration is reduced in accordance with the Table to this section.
	(4) Where the application to a public servant of subsections (2) and (3) and the Table to this section would result in his or her annual remuneration being reduced to less than €65,000, then those subsections and that Table shall only operate to reduce his or her annual remuneration to €65,000.
	(5) Where a public servant is entitled as part of his or her annual remuneration to the payment of an allowance and the allowance—
	(a) is not reimbursement of any expense actually incurred, and
	(b) is expressed as a specified percentage or specified proportion of another part of the remuneration (referred to in this subsection as ‘basic salary’) of a public servant to whom the relevant provision applies,
	then the public servant’s basic salary, for the purposes of calculating the amount payable as the allowance, is his or her basic salary reduced in accordance with subsections (2) and (3) and the Table to this section.
	(6) This section has effect notwithstanding—
	(a) any provision by or under—
	(i) any other Act,
	(ii) any statute or other document to like effect of a university or other third level institution,
	(iii) any circular or instrument or other document,
	(iv) any written agreement or contractual arrangement,
	or
	(b) any verbal agreement, arrangement or understanding or any expectation.
	Table
	Reduction in Remuneration of Public Servants Earning More Than €65,000
Annualised amount of Remuneration Reduction Up to €80,000 5.5 per cent Any amount over €80,000 but not over €150,000 8 per cent Any amount over €150,000 but not over €185,000 9 per cent Any amount over €185,000 10 per cent
	Alteration of remuneration (other than basic salary) or working time of public servants.
	2B.— (1) In this section—
	‘Act of 1997’ means the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 ;
	‘remuneration’ does not include basic salary;
	‘working time’ has the meaning it has in the Act of 1997.
	(2) A power conferred by or under any enactment to fix the terms and conditions of persons who are public servants may, notwithstanding any thing referred to in subsection (3), be exercised so as—
	(a) to result in less favourable remuneration for those persons, in respect of the employment, office or position held by them in the public service body concerned, than that enjoyed by them immediately before the exercise of the power, or
	(b) to provide that the working time, whether by reference to a day, a week or a month, of those persons in the employment, office or position held by them in the public service body concerned shall, to a specified extent, be greater (but not greater than that which is permitted by the Act of 1997) than that which stood provided, immediately before the exercise of the power, to be their working time in that employment, office or position.
	(3) The things referred to in subsection (2) are—
	(a) any provision by or under—
	(i) any other Act,
	(ii) any statute or other document to like effect of a university or other third level institution,
	(iii) any circular or instrument or other document,

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