Bill No 6

Second Reading Speech – Lady Sheil

Your Grace

In introducing the Bill before you now I am pleased to report that the greater part of this draft legislation seeks to continue the pattern, established in the past two decades, of improving benefits payable from the Church of Ireland Pensions Fund to retired members of the Fund or, where appropriate, to their surviving spouses and dependants. The Bill also includes several changes consequential upon the legislation of the State and others of a “housekeeping” nature which are in anticipation of the proposed consolidation of the Constitution and relate to the work of the Pensions Board; all of these I shall summarise in the next few minutes.

As one who, for many years, was involved in the preparation of legislation for the other jurisdiction on this island I find it unusual to refer to the draft provisions of a Bill as anything other than ‘clauses’. This Bill is, however, the work of two draftsmen and so, out of respect to the wishes of the other draftsman, Canon JLB Deane, I will adopt the practice followed in this jurisdiction and refer to ‘sections’ of the Bill.

Section 2 of the Bill would extend to stepchildren of deceased members of the Fund the eligibility for child dependency allowances which children and adopted children already share.

Upon retirement the pension entitlement of a member of the Pensions Fund is calculated on the basis of the number of completed years of service and, since 1998, the number of months in an incomplete year have also been credited; the provisions of Section 3 would enable the number of days of completed service in a final incomplete year to be taken into account in the calculation of pension entitlement – a small but nonetheless worthwhile factor at the time of retirement.

Section 4 contains the first of the amendments of a “housekeeping” nature drafted in anticipation of the proposed consolidation of the Constitution of the Church of Ireland and seeks to provide that the triennial election of officers of the Pensions Board will take place at the first meeting of the Board following the completion of the triennial election of members of the Board; it also seeks to give effect to what has been the practice of the Board for many years, namely the election of a Vice Chairman in addition to a Chairman of the Board.

Under Sections 31 and 32 of the Constitution the Pensions Board is required to appoint a Medical Panel of not more than three medical experts to report upon every clergyman prior to his or her enrolment as a member of the Pensions Fund. Experience has shown that the limitation to three of this Panel has proved inconvenient for some members and prospective members of the Fund and in draft Sections 5 and 6 of this Bill this limitation would be removed and the fact that a medical report is required simply from one member of the Panel is clarified.

At present, while contributions to the Fund are not payable in respect of a member who has retired, members who continue in service after reaching 65 have continued to pay contributions; the provisions of Sections 7 and 15 of this Bill will ensure that contributions will cease in respect of all members who continue in service after reaching the age of 65 and I am pleased to advise the Synod that this will not affect the benefits to which these members and their spouses will be entitled.

Section 8 is purely consequential upon the provisions of Section 3 of the Bill and Sections 9, 14 and 19 which seek to repeal spent provisions of Chapter XIV will facilitate the proposed consolidation of the Constitution.

Members of General Synod will be aware that, while two special increases in Minimum Approved Stipend were made in the past two years, consequential increases in the pensions of members who retired on or before 1^st January 2000 or indeed of those who retired between 1^st January 2000 and 1^st January 2001 (the date of the second increase in Minimum Approved Stipend) were not made. The provisions of Section 12 would restore parity to the pensions of both such categories of retired members while Section 17 would make similar provision in respect of archbishops and bishops.

Section 10 seeks to provide for an increase of one-ninth in the pensions of surviving spouses of members of the Fund and in Section 16 provision is made for the same increase in the pension entitlement of surviving spouses of bishops and archbishops. It is proposed in Section 12 that pensions of surviving spouses and child dependency allowances which are currently in course of payment be increased by the same fraction in addition to the percentage required to restore parity of pensions as in the case of members. Provision for the same increase in the pensions currently being paid to the surviving spouses of archbishops and bishops is to be found in Section 17.

I referred earlier to certain provisions of the Bill being consequential upon the legislation of the State. The provisions of Section 13 fall within this category and are consequential upon regulations made by the governments of the Republic of Ireland and of the United Kingdom concerning pension funds; inter alia, these regulations seek to ensure that a member of a pension fund who is resident in the State other than that in which the fund is based shall have the benefit of the legislation of the State in which he or she resides where this is to his or her advantage.

Finally, since Irish Pounds will be replaced by Euros on 1 January 2002 and will cease to be legal tender after 9 February 2002, Section 18 provides that in Chapter XIV of the Constitution of the Church of Ireland references to Irish Pounds will be replaced by references to Euros with effect from 1 January 2002. [Some, myself included, may feel this to be a sad but necessary change.]

Your Grace, I commend the detailed provisions of this Bill to the Synod as a significant improvement in pension provision for those who have faithfully given so many years in the service of God on this island.

I beg to move that the Bill be now read a second time.