14.—(1) Where—

(a) a person, who does not hold a qualifying office on the date of the passing of this Act, held a ministerial office before that date and his pensionable service on that date is three years or more, or

(b) a person has held a ministerial office before the 6th day of December, 1922, and has held before the date of the passing of this Act secretarial office for a period of not less than seven years,

such person shall become entitled on the date of the passing of this Act to a pension(in this Act referred to as a ministerial pension).

(2) Where—

(a) a person, who holds a qualifying office on or after the date of the passing of this Act, ceases to hold a qualifying office, and

(b) his pensionable service is on the date of such cesser three years or more, and

(c) such person is not on the date of such cesser entitled to a pension under sub-section (1) of this section or this sub-section,

F61[such person shall on the date of such cesser become entitled to a pension (in this Act also referred to as a ministerial pension), but only for so long as such person is not a member of either House of the Oireachtas or a member of the European Parliament.]

F62[(3) A Ministerial pension shall be at the following rates, that is to say:

so long as the pensionable service of the person entitled thereto is less than four years, twenty-five per cent. of the annual sum payable for the time being by way of salary to a member of the Government other than the Taoiseach or (if the person held the office of Taoiseach on the last day on which he held qualifying office) to the Taoiseach,

if and so long as such person's pensionable service is less than five years but not less than four years, twenty-nine per cent. of the sum aforesaid,

if and so long as such person's pensionable service is less than six years but not less than five years, thirty-three per cent. of the sum aforesaid,

if and so long as such person's pensionable service is less than seven years but not less than six years, thirty-seven per cent. of the sum aforesaid,

if and so long as such person's pensionable service is less than eight years but not less than seven years, forty-one per cent. of the sum aforesaid,

in case such person's pensionable service is not less than eight years, forty-five per cent. of the sum aforesaid.]

(4) For the purposes of this section—

(a) the number of years during which a person held secretarial office shall be taken to be the result obtained by dividing the number of days during which such person held a secretarial office by the number three hundred and sixty-five, any fraction over being disregarded;

(b) the number of years of pensionable service of a person shall be taken to be the result obtained by dividing the number of days of his pensionable service by the number three hundred and sixty-five, any fraction over being disregarded;

(c) the pensionable service of a person shall be the sum of each period which such person is entitled to reckon as a period of pensionable service under the subsequent provisions of this sub-section;

(d) each of the following periods shall in respect of any person be a period of pensionable service—

(i) if he held ministerial office before the 11th day of July, 1921, a period equal to twice the length of any period before that day during which he held ministerial office,

(ii) if he held ministerial office on or after the 11th day of July, 1921, any period commencing on or after that day during which he held ministerial office, subject however to this limitation, namely, that if he was during any period a member of the Cabinet in the Second Dáil Eireann or the Third Dáil Eireann and also a member of the Provisional Government, such period shall not be reckonable as a period during which he was both a member of such Cabinet and also a member of the Provisional Government,

(iii) if his pensionable service as computed under the preceding provisions of this sub-section is three years or more and he had held secretarial office, or if paragraph (b) of sub-section (1) of this section applies to him, a period equal to half the period during which he held any secretarial office.

(5) A ministerial pension shall, for the purposes of sub-section (1) of section 8 of the Military Service Pensions Act, 1924 (No. 48 of 1924), or sub-section (1) of section 20 of the Military Service Pensions Act, 1934 (No. 43 of 1934), be deemed not to be a pension or allowance payable out of public moneys.