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32 1969

INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT ACT, 1969

Chapter II

Provisions Relating to Members and Staff

Remuneration, etc. of members of Authority.

24. —The remuneration, terms of appointment and conditions of service of the Chairman, Deputy Chairmen and other members may be fixed by contracts entered into with them by the Minister with the consent of the Minister for Finance.

Member of Authority becoming candidate for membership of House of Oireachtas.

25. —Section 4 of the Act of 1950 is hereby amended by the substitution of the following for subsection (9) (a):

“(a) Where a member of the Authority is nominated either as a candidate for election to either House of the Oireachtas or as a member of Seanad Éireann, he shall thereupon cease to be a member of the Authority”.

Officers and servants of Authority.

26. —(1) The Authority may appoint such and so many persons to be officers and servants of the Authority as it thinks proper from time to time.

(2) An officer or servant of the Authority shall hold office or employment on such terms and conditions as the Authority may from time to time determine.

(3) A person who immediately before the commencement of this section was a person who was appointed by the Minister under section 6 (3) of the Act of 1950 shall on and from such commencement become and be an officer or servant of the Authority.

(4) A person who was appointed an officer or servant of An Foras Tionscal under section 5 (1) of the Act of 1966 shall on and from the commencement of this section become and be an officer or servant of the Authority.

(5) A person who was appointed by the Minister pursuant to an order made under section 5 (1) of the Civil Service Commissioners Act, 1956 , to serve the Authority shall on and from the commencement of this section become and be an officer or servant of the Authority and any such order shall on and from the commencement of this subsection cease to have effect.

(6) An officer or servant of the Authority shall be paid such remuneration and allowances as the Authority, with the consent of the Minister and the Minister for Finance, may from time to time determine.

Superannuation of staff referred to in section 26.

27. —(1) The Authority shall prepare and submit to the Minister a contributory scheme or schemes for the granting of pensions, gratuities and other allowances on retirement to or in respect of such officers and servants referred to in section 26 of this Act as it may think fit.

(2) Every such scheme shall fix the time and conditions of retirement for all persons to or in respect of whom pensions, gratuities or allowances on retirement are payable under the scheme, and different times and conditions may be fixed in respect of different classes of persons.

(3) The Authority may at any time prepare and submit to the Minister a scheme amending a scheme previously submitted and approved of under this section.

(4) A scheme submitted to the Minister under this section shall, if approved of by the Minister with the concurrence of the Minister for Finance, be carried out by the Authority in accordance with its terms.

(5) If any dispute arises as to the claim of any person to, or the amount of, any pension, gratuity or allowance payable in pursuance of a scheme under this section, such dispute shall be submitted to the Minister who shall refer it to the Minister for Finance, whose decision shall be final.

(6) Every scheme submitted and approved of under this section shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is approved of and if either House, within the next twenty-one days on which that House has sat after the scheme is laid before it, passes a resolution annulling the scheme, the scheme shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

(7) An officer or servant of the Authority becoming entitled to superannuation benefits under this section shall, if appointed a whole-time member of the Authority, not be entitled to the superannuation benefits to which, but for this subsection, he would have been entitled under section 28 of the Superannuation and Pensions Act, 1963 .

Disclosure of documents.

28. —The Authority shall not, without the consent of the Minister, disclose any document in its custody or under its control, production of which is sought in relation to any legal proceeding, and the Minister may claim the like privilege in respect of the document as if it were in his own custody.

Disclosure of information.

29. —(1) No person who is an officer or servant of, or an adviser or consultant to, the Authority shall disclose any information obtained by him while performing duties as such officer, servant, adviser or consultant.

(2) A person who contravenes subsection (1) of this section shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £50.

(3) Nothing in subsection (1) of this section shall prevent—

(a) disclosure of information in a report made to the Authority or (on behalf of the Authority) to the Minister,

(b) disclosure of information by the Authority for the purpose of a scheme of research or development.

(4) A member of the Authority shall not be prevented from disclosing information for the purpose of a scheme of research or development.

Officer or servant of Authority becoming member of House of Oireachtas.

30. —(1) Where a person who is either an officer or a servant in the employment of the Authority becomes a member of either House of the Oireachtas—

(a) he shall, during the period (in this section referred to as the secondment period) commencing upon his becoming entitled under the Standing Orders of that House to sit therein and ending either when he ceases to be a member of that House or, if it should sooner happen, upon his resignation or retirement from that employment by the Authority, stand seconded from that employment,

(b) he shall not be paid by, or entitled to receive from, the Authority any remuneration or allowances in respect of the secondment period,

(c) if there is in force a scheme made under section 27 of this Act and the scheme establishes a fund to which the Authority and the person pay contributions—

(i) the secondment period shall, for the purposes of the scheme, be deemed to be service of that person which is reckonable for superannuation benefits under the scheme if, but only if—

(I) he was in the permanent employment of the Authority and was a contributor under the scheme immediately before the commencement of the secondment period,

(II) he elects, by notice in writing given to the Authority within three months after the commencement of the secondment period, to pay contributions under the scheme in respect of the secondment period in accordance with the provisions of this section, and

(III) he pays, at such times and in such manner as the person duly appointed to administer the scheme may specify, contributions under the scheme in respect of the secondment period equal in amount to the aggregate of the contributions which he would have paid and the contributions which the Authority would have paid in respect of the secondment period if he had remained without secondment under this subsection in the service of the Authority during the secondment period and had been in receipt of remuneration from the Authority during the period,

(ii) the Authority shall not pay any contributions under the scheme in respect of the secondment period, but that part of the contributions payable by him as aforesaid which is equal to the amount of the contributions which the Authority would have paid under the scheme in respect of the secondment period if he had remained without secondment under this subsection in the service of the Authority during the secondment period and had been in receipt of remuneration from the Authority during that period shall, for the purposes of the scheme, be deemed to have been paid by the Authority,

(iii) if the secondment period is terminated by his death or by his retirement from that employment, he shall, for the purposes of the scheme, be deemed to have died in or to have been retired from the service of the Authority, as the case may be, and to have been in receipt of remuneration from the Authority immediately before such death or retirement, as the case may be,

(iv) if he does not pay or if, having paid contributions under the scheme in accordance with the provisions of this subsection, he ceases to pay contributions as aforesaid, he shall, for the purposes of the scheme, be deemed to have resigned from that employment,

(I) in case he ceases to pay contributions as aforesaid—on the date of the last payment, and

(II) in any other case—immediately before the commencement of the secondment period.

(2) If a person who is or was an officer or servant of the Authority becomes entitled to a pension under the Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices Acts, 1938 to 1968—

(a) he shall not be entitled to reckon the whole or any part of his period of pensionable service, within the meaning of those Acts, for any superannuation benefits payable under a scheme made in pursuance of section 27 of this Act,

(b) if he has paid any contributions in accordance with the provisions of subsection (1) of this section in respect of that period, so much thereof as is equal to the amount of the contributions which he would have paid in respect of that period under the scheme if he had remained without secondment under the said subsection (1) in the service of the Authority during that period and had been in receipt of remuneration from the Authority during that period, shall be returned to him if and when a payment of benefit or a return of other contributions is made to him under the scheme.

(3) A reference in subsection (1) or (2) of this section to the receipt by any person of remuneration from the Authority shall be taken as a reference to the receipt by that person of remuneration from the Authority at the rate at which he was being remunerated by the Authority on the last day of his whole-time employment with the Authority before his secondment under the said subsection (1).

(4) A person who is for the time being entitled under the Standing Orders of either House of the Oireachtas to sit therein shall, while so entitled, be disqualified from becoming an officer or servant of the Authority.

Transfer to Authority of technical advisers.

31. —All persons who immediately before the commencement of this section were employed by the Minister under paragraph 9 (3) of the First Schedule to the Act of 1952 shall on and from such commencement become and be employees of the Authority, and shall hold such employment on such terms and conditions as the Authority may from time to time determine.

Amendment of section 28 of Superannuation and Pensions Act, 1963.

32. Section 28 of the Superannuation and Pensions Act, 1963 , is hereby amended by the insertion after subsection (5) (a) (ii) of the following—

“and

(iii) in the case of a person who was first appointed a full time member of the Authority on the 19th day of March, 1965, with effect from the 1st day of April, 1965, the period from the 1st day of January, 1960, to the 31st day of March, 1965”.