Under section 46 of the Postal and Telecommunications Services Act 1983, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, with the concurrence of the Minister for Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform, approves any superannuation schemes submitted by An Post.
The 1983 Act requires that, for civil servants who transferred to An Post on ‘vesting day’, which was 1 January 1984, An Post’s pension scheme must provide for not less favorable conditions than those to which the members of staff were entitled immediately before the vesting day.
Section 46 of the 1983 Act sets a minimum level of parity between the An Post Scheme and the scheme that applied to staff members of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs as it stood on the day before vesting day. Section 46 does not provide that the conditions in the An Post Scheme must continue to match any subsequent improvement in pension conditions for the award of pension increases in the civil service; it does not give rise to an entitlement to pension increases other than those granted in accordance with the An Post Superannuation Scheme rules.
The operation of the schemes, including the rules of the scheme and the company's level of contribution, is a matter between the management of An Post, staff representatives and the trustees of the schemes.
The difference between the pension schemes as to the devising and governing criteria of the schemes are not matters appropriate to me as the Minister or my Department.
