Garda Síochána Pensions Order, 1951

• Jurisdiction: Ireland

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 Garda 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 Garda 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, the following Order : 1. This Order may be cited as the Garda Síochána Pensions Order, 1951. 2. This Order and the Garda Síochána Pensions Orders, 1925 to 1950, may be cited together as the Garda Síochána Pensions Orders, 1925 to 1951. 3. The Interpretation Act, 1937 (No. 38 of 1937), applies to this Order. 4. (1) In this Order—

the expression the " critical date " means the date of the making of 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 Garda Siochana Pensions Order, 1925 ( S. R. & O. No. 63 of 1925 ), as amended by subsequent orders.

(2) Any expression used in this Order which has a particular meaning for the purposes of the Order of 1922 or the Order of 1925 (as may be appropriate) shall have that meaning in this Order. 5. (1) In this Order the expression " person pensionable in accordance with this Order " means—

(a) a person who becomes a member of the force after the critical date, or

(b) a person—

(i) who was serving as a member of the force on the critical date,

(ii) who has applied in writing to the Minister, within six months after the critical date, to become pensionable in accordance with this Order,

(iii) who, on the critical date, had not attained—

(I) in case he was then below the rank of Superintendent, the age of sixty years,

(II) in case he was then of the rank of Superintendent or Chief Superintendent, the age of sixty-three years, or

(III) in case he was then of a rank higher than Chief Superintendent, the age of sixty-five years, and

(iv) whose said application has been accepted by the Minister.

(2) The Minister shall not accept an application referred to in subparagraph (b) of paragraph (1) of this Article unless he is satisfied that the applicant is in good health, and for that purpose the Minister may require the applicant to undergo such medical examination as the Minister may direct. 6. (1) The Order of 1922 shall, as respects a person pensionable in accordance with this Order to whom the Order of 1922 applies and to whom the scale of ordinary pensions prescribed by the Order of 1922 applies, be construed and have effect as if, for the matter set out in paragraph (a) of Part I of the First Schedule thereto, there were substituted the matter set out in Table I to this Order.

(2) The matter set out in Table I to this Order shall apply to a person pensionable in accordance with this Order to whom the Order of 1922 applies but to whom the scale of ordinary pensions prescribed by the Order of 1922 does not apply in lieu of the provisions of the existing Acts, as defined in the Order of 1922, relating to the scales of ordinary pensions and gratuities.

(3) The Order of 1922 shall, as respects a person pensionable in accordance with this Order to whom the Order of 1922 applies, be construed and have effect as if, for the matter set out in paragraph (b) of Part I of the First Schedule thereto, there were substituted the matter set out in Table II to this Order. 7. The Order of 1925 shall, as respects a person pensionable in accordance with this Order to whom the Order of 1925 applies, be construed and have effect as if, for the matter set out in paragraph A of Part I of the First Schedule thereto, there were substituted the matter set out in Table III to this Order and as if, for the matter set out in paragraph B of the said Part I, there were substituted the matter set out in Table II to this Order. 8. A person pensionable in accordance with this Order, having been granted an ordinary pension, shall be entitled also to receive a gratuity (in this Order referred to as a retirement gratuity) which shall be calculated as follows :

(a) in case he was serving as a member of the force on the 1st day of January, 1950, and was appointed (or if he had two or more separate periods of service, was first appointed) to the force after his 27th birthday, it shall be calculated at the rate of one-thirtieth of his annual pay for each completed year of approved service (so much of the approved service as is service after his 47th birthday being doubled) subject to a maximum of one and one-half times his annual pay : Provided that, in case he was serving as a member of the force on the critical date, the result of the said calculation shall be increased by one-half of one per cent. for each completed year of approved service (none thereof being doubled) before the critical date ; and

(b) in any other case, it shall be calculated at the rate of one-thirtieth of his annual pay for each completed year of approved service together with an additional thirtieth of his annual pay for the twenty-first and...