34.—(1) The Agency may, with the consent of the Minister and the Minister for Finance, make a scheme or schemes for the granting of superannuation benefits to or in respect of such persons appointed under section 29 to, or accepted under section 30 or 32 into, wholetime employment of the Agency.

(2) A scheme under subsection (1) shall fix the time and conditions of retirement for all persons to or in respect of whom superannuation benefits are payable under the scheme, and different times and conditions may be fixed in respect of different classes of persons.

(3) The Agency may, with the consent of the Minister and the Minister for Finance, make a scheme amending or revoking a scheme under this section including a scheme under this subsection.

(4) If any dispute arises as to the claim of any person to, or the amount of, any superannuation benefit payable in pursuance of a scheme or schemes 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.

(5) No superannuation benefit shall be granted by the Agency on the resignation, retirement or death of an employee of the Agency otherwise than in accordance with a scheme under this section.

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

(7) A scheme or schemes under subsection (1) shall, as respects a person accepted into wholetime employment of the Agency under section 30 or 32, provide for the granting to or in respect of him of superannuation benefits upon and subject to terms and conditions that are not less favourable to him than the terms and conditions applied to him immediately before the day on which he was so accepted into the employment of the Agency in relation to the grant of such benefits.

(8) Where, during the period between the establishment day and the coming into operation of a scheme under this section, superannuation benefits would have been granted to or in respect of a person accepted into wholetime employment of the Agency under section 30 or 32, in respect of his employment with the public authority concerned, the superannuation benefits shall be granted and paid to or in respect of the person by the Agency and, for that purpose, his pensionable service with the Agency shall be aggregated with his previous pensionable service.

(9) In this section and in sections 35 and 36 “superannuation benefits” means pensions, gratuities and other allowances payable on resignation, retirement or death.