41.— (1) The company shall prepare and submit to the Minister a scheme or schemes for the granting of superannuation benefits to or in respect of such members of the staff of the company as it may think fit.

(2) Every such scheme 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) Every such scheme may be amended or revoked by a subsequent scheme prepared, submitted and approved under this section.

(4) A scheme submitted by the company under this section shall, if approved by the Minister with the consent of the Minister for Finance, be carried out by the company in accordance with its terms.

(5) Superannuation benefits granted under schemes under this section to persons who, immediately before the vesting day, were members of the staff of the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications and the terms and conditions relating to those benefits shall not be less favourable to those persons than those to which they were entitled immediately before that day.

(6) No superannuation benefit shall be granted by the company nor shall any other arrangements be entered into by the company for the provision of such a benefit to or in respect of a member of the staff of the company otherwise than in accordance with a scheme under this section.

(7) 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, for determination by him.

(8) Where, in the period beginning on the vesting day and ending immediately before the commencement of a scheme under this section, a superannuation benefit falls due for payment to or in respect of a person who was transferred to the staff of the company under section 40 , the benefit shall be calculated by the company in accordance with such scheme, or such enactments in relation to superannuation, as applied to the person immediately before the vesting day and, for that purpose, his pensionable service with the company shall be aggregated with his previous pensionable service and shall be paid by the company out of the fund established under subsection (9).

(9) As soon as may be after the vesting day, the company shall establish a fund administered by trustees who shall be appointed by the company from which superannuation benefits payable under a scheme under this section shall be paid.

(10) The Minister for Finance shall determine an appropriate contribution, related to reckonable service given before the vesting day, towards the superannuation benefits which may be granted to or in respect of persons who are transferred to the staff of the company under section 40 and shall, subject to subsection (12), pay such contribution to the trustees appointed under subsection (9) at such times and in such manner as he shall determine.

(11) Where any part of the contribution under subsection (10) remains unpaid for any period after the vesting day, interest shall be payable by the Minister for Finance to the trustees appointed under subsection (9) at such rate as the Minister for Finance may determine in respect of that period on the amount so unpaid.

(12) Payments under subsection (10) or (11) shall be made not later than 7 years after the vesting day.

(13) Moneys required to be paid by the F28[Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform] under this section shall be advanced out of the Central Fund or the growing produce thereof F29[by the Minister for Finance, on the request of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform].

(14) 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 21 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.