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29 1935

WIDOWS AND ORPHANS PENSIONS ACT, 1935

PART V.

Contributions and Financial Provisions.

Rates of contributions.

38. —(1) For the purpose of making provision towards the costs of pensions payable under this Act, the following provisions shall on and after the second appointed day have effect, that is to say:—

(a) subject to the provisions of paragraph (b) of this sub-section, contributions shall be paid, in respect of every person who is an employed contributor or who is employed in an excepted employment to which this Act applies, and by every person who is a voluntary contributor, at the rates specified in Part I of the Second Schedule to this Act, and

(b) during the period of five years commencing on the second appointed day contributions shall be paid in respect of every person who is an employed contributor and who is employed in agricultural employment, at the rates specified in Part II of the Second Schedule to this Act in lieu of the rates specified in Part I of the said Schedule.

(2) No contributions under this section shall be payable by a person who is a voluntary contributor and has attained the age of seventy or in respect of any other person who has attained the age of seventy.

(3) Where contributions under this section are payable in respect of a person who is an employed contributor or who is employed in an employment which is an excepted employment to which this Act applies, such contributions shall be payable partly by the employer and partly by such person, or wholly by the employer as provided in the Part of the Second Schedule to this Act applicable to the case, and where contributions under this Act are payable by a voluntary contributor, such contributions shall be payable wholly by such voluntary contributor.

(4) In this section the expressions “employed contributor” and “voluntary contributor” have the meanings respectively assigned to them by the National Health Insurance Acts.

(5) This section shall not apply in respect of soldiers.

Collection of contributions.

39. —(1) The contributions by or in respect of an insured person payable under the immediately preceding section and contributions by or in respect of such person payable under the National Health Insurance Acts shall be paid as one contribution under the National Health Insurance Acts, and (subject to such modifications and adaptations as may be prescribed) the contributions payable under the immediately preceding section in respect of a person in an excepted employment to which this Act applies shall be paid as if they were contributions under the National Health Insurance Acts, and (subject as aforesaid) all statutory provisions relating to the payment and collection of contributions under the National Health Insurance Acts, including (but without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing enactment) the provisions with respect to offences and civil proceedings in relation to contributions, with respect to priority of the claims for contributions, and with respect to the powers of inspectors, and the provisions of section 31 of the Unemployment Insurance Act, 1920, shall have effect accordingly.

(2) This section shall not apply in respect of soldiers.

Contributions in respect of soldiers.

40. —(1) On and after the second appointed day there shall be paid by the Minister for Defence out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas in respect of every soldier a contribution for the purposes of this Act at the rate of eight pence per week.

(2) The amounts to be paid by the Minister for Defence under this section shall be ascertained in such manner and shall be paid into the Widows' and Orphans' Pensions Fund in such manner and at such dates in each year as shall be agreed upon by the Minister and the Minister for Defence.

(3) There shall be recovered by deduction from the pay of each soldier part of the contributions paid under this section to such amount, not exceeding one half thereof, as the Minister for Defence, with the concurrence of the Minister for Finance, shall direct.

(4) Any moneys recovered by the Minister for Defence under the immediately preceding sub-section shall be paid into or disposed of for the benefit of the Exchequer in such manner as the Minister for Finance may direct.

Widows' and Orphans' Pensions Fund.

41. —(1) The Minister shall keep a separate fund (in this Act referred to as the Fund) to be called and known as the Widows' and Orphans' Pensions Fund, and shall maintain and manage the Fund in accordance with this Act.

(2) There shall be paid into the Fund all moneys collected as contributions under this Part of this Act.

(3) All pensions payable under this Act shall be paid out of the Fund.

Pensions Investment Account.

42. —(1) Any sums standing to the credit of the Fund which are not required to meet current expenditure shall be transferred to the Minister for Finance and by him credited to an account (in this Act referred to as the Account) to be called the “Pensions Investment Account.

(2) There shall be paid into the Account, out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas, in respect of the financial year ending on the 31st day of March, 1936, and in respect of each of the next nine succeeding financial years, the annual sum of two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, and thereafter such sums as the Oireachtas may determine.

(3) Any sums standing to the credit of the Account shall be invested and kept invested at the discretion of the Minister for Finance on behalf of the Fund in all or any of the following ways, that is to say, in the purchase of any stock, fund or security in which trustees are authorised by section 18 of the Adaptation of Enactments Act, 1922 (No. 2 of 1922) to invest trust funds or in the purchase of any stock, shares or security the principal and interest of which is guaranteed under statutory authority by the Government of Saorstát Eireann, and any interest received from such investment shall be credited to the Account.

(4) Moneys liable to investment under the immediately preceding sub-section of this section shall be Government money within the meaning of the Approved Investments Act, 1933 (No. 34 of 1933), and that Act shall apply in regard thereto accordingly.

(5) If at any time the moneys in the Fund are insufficient to meet current liabilities the Minister for Finance shall, out of the Account, issue to the Fund such sums as may be required for the purpose of discharging those liabilities.

Administrative Expenses.

43. —(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, all expenses incurred in the administration of this Act, shall, to such extent as may be sanctioned by the Minister for Finance, be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.

(2) Such sums as the Minister for Finance may direct shall be paid out of the Fund and shall, in accordance with regulations to be made by him, be applied as an appropriation-in-aid of moneys provided by the Oireachtas for the said expenses.

Accounts.

44. —(1) Accounts of the Fund and the Account shall be kept in such form as the Minister for Finance may approve or direct.

(2) Within one year after the expiration of every year of account, the accounts kept in pursuance of this section for that year shall be submitted for audit to the Comptroller and Auditor-General, and when examined and certified shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas.

Actuarial inquiries.

45. —The Minister for Finance may, whenever and so often as he thinks fit, cause an actuarial inquiry to be made into the general financial operation of this Act, including an estimate of the value of contributions payable under this Act and the value of the benefits conferred by this Act and shall cause the report of the actuary to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas.