53.— (1) Subject to the provisions of this section, such officers and members of the staff of the Agency who are designated by the Minister for the purposes of this section shall stand transferred to the Board on such day as may be specified for the purpose by the Minister.

(2) The designation of staff and the specifying of a day in accordance with subsection (1) shall be made with the consent of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.

(3) (a) Subject to paragraph (b) every person who, immediately before he or she was transferred to the Board in accordance with subsection (1), was an officer of the Agency shall, on such transfer, be an officer of the Board and hold an unestablished position in the Civil Service.

(b) Every person who, immediately before he or she was transferred to the Board in accordance with subsection (1), was a fixed-term employee of the Agency shall, on such transfer, hold an unestablished position as a fixed-term employee of the Board for the unexpired duration of his or her contract of employment.

(4) Save in accordance with a collective agreement negotiated with any recognised trade union or staff association concerned, a person referred to in subsection (1) shall not, on being transferred to the Board, be made subject to less beneficial terms and conditions of service (including those relating to tenure of office) or of remuneration than the terms and conditions of service (including those relating to tenure of office) or of remuneration to which he or she was subject immediately before that transfer.

(5) The previous service of a person transferred under subsection (1) shall be reckonable for the purposes of, but subject to the exceptions or exclusions in, the following:

(a) the Redundancy Payments Acts 1967 to 2007;

(b) the Protection of Employees (Part-Time Work) Act 2001;

(c) the Protection of Employees (Fixed-Term Work) Act 2003;

(d) the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997;

(e) the Terms of Employment (Information) Acts 1994 and 2001;

(f) the Minimum Notice and Terms of Employment Acts 1973 to 2005;

(g) the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977 to 2007;

(h) the Maternity Protection Acts 1994 and 2004;

(i) the Parental Leave Acts 1998 and 2006;

(j) the Adoptive Leave Acts 1995 and 2005;

(k) the Carer’s Leave Act 2001.

(6) Any superannuation benefits awarded to or in respect of a person transferred under subsection (1), and the terms and conditions relating to those benefits, shall be no less favourable than those applicable to or in respect of the person immediately before the transfer.

(7) In this section—

“Civil Service” has the same meaning as in the Civil Service Regulations Act 1956;

“recognised trade union or staff association” means a trade union or staff association recognised by the Agency or the Board for the purposes of negotiations which are concerned with the remuneration, conditions of employment or working conditions of the persons concerned.