Gárda Síochána Pensions Order, 1950

• 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 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...