16.— The Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices Act 1938 (as amended by the Oireachtas (Allowances to Members) and Ministerial and Parliamentary Offices (Amendment) Act 1992 and by the Ministerial, Parliamentary and Judicial Offices and Oireachtas Members (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2001) is amended—

(a) in section 13A(7)(a)(i), by inserting “subject to subsection (9),” before “in case”,

(b) in section 13A by inserting the following after subsection (8):

“(9) On application for a pension under this section to the Minister for Finance, by a person whose entitlement to the pension arose on or after the date of commencement of this section, the pension is payable as of and from a date that the Minister for Finance may determine in writing that is—

(a) not earlier than the date of entitlement, and

(b) not later than the date of the application.”,

(c) in section 13AA(1), by substituting the following for paragraphs (a) and (b):

“(a) the person has completed not less than 2 years of ministerial service but is not entitled to a ministerial pension under section 13A, or

(b) the person has completed not less than 2 years of secretarial service but is not entitled to a secretarial pension under section 13A.”,

and

(d) in section 13AA(4), by substituting “(but less than 8)” for “(but less than 3)”,

(e) in section 13B, by re-numbering subsection (5)(a)(iii) as subsection (5)(a)(iv) and by inserting the following after subsection (5)(a)(ii):

“(iii) in the case of a person—

(I) whose original pension is a secretarial pension, and

(II) who, on ceasing to hold a qualifying office after the operative date, has served in a ministerial office for at least 2 but less than 3 years,

an amount equal to the difference between—

(A) the amount of the ministerial pension which would then be payable to the person if such person was a minister, calculated in accordance with section 13AA of the 1938 Act, and

(B) the amount of the person’s original pension.”,

(f) in section 13B(5)(a)(iv), by inserting “or (iii)” after “subparagraph (ii)”, and

(g) in section 13B(5)(b)(ii), by substituting “subparagraph (iv)” for “subparagraph (iii)”.