S.L. 111.1 Art. 11Pensions to disabled persons.

(1) Where a qualifying injury sustained by a person is causing him serious and prolonged disablement, that person may be awarded under this article in respect of that injury a pension in accordance with the following provisions of this article.

(2) A pension under this article in respect of an injury shall be at weekly rate not exceeding -

(a) where the degree of disablement caused by that injury is one hundred per cent, the maximum rate; or

(b) where the degree of disablement caused by that injury is less than one hundred per cent, the rate which bears to the maximum rate the same proportion as the degree of disablement caused by that injury bears to one hundred per cent, or the rate of nineteen cents (0.19), whichever is the greater:

Provided that where a beneficiary is in receipt of a greater pension which exceeds the amount provided for in paragraph (b) of this article, he shall continue to receive such greater rate of pension.

(3) Where a person to whom a pension has been or may be awarded under this article in respect of an injury is a person to whom a pension, or in respect of whom an allowance, is payable out of public funds in respect of the death of any person (not being a pension or allowance payable only in a case of need), the weekly rate of the pension under this article shall not exceed:

(a) where the degree of disablement caused by that injury is one hundred per cent, the rate which is arrived at by deducting from the maximum rate a sum equal to two-thirds of the weekly rate of the pension or allowance payable out of public funds; or

(b) where the degree of disablement caused by that injury is less than one hundred per cent, the rate which bears to the rate calculated in accordance with paragraph (a) of this sub-article the same proportion as the degree of disablement caused by that injury bears to one hundred per cent:

Provided that where the weekly rate of pension calculated in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this sub-article is less than nineteen cents (0.19), the weekly rate of that pension shall be nineteen cents (0.19).

(4) In this article the expression "maximum rate", in relation to a pension which may be awarded to a person under this article means whichever, of the weekly rates specified in the table set out at the end of this article in relation to the class of injury sustained by that person is from time to time appropriate in the case of that person:

Provided that, for the purposes of that table -

(a) where a qualifying injury which is not an injury which may be compensated on the higher scale has been sustained by a person before he has attained the age of fourteen years or at a time when he was a student or an apprentice, that injury shall be treated as if it were an injury which may be compensated on the higher scale unless that person was, immediately before he sustained the injury, suffering from physical or mental infirmity to such an extent as to preclude the likelihood of his ever being able to earn his own living; and

(b) a person who was married at the date on which he sustained the qualifying injury in respect of which a pension under this article is awarded, shall, notwithstanding that he has not attained the age of eighteen years, be treated as if he had attained that age.

(5) A pension shall not be awarded in respect of an injury which may not be compensated on the higher scale, except in case of need. TABLE

The maximum weekly rate of pension for one hundred per cent disablement shall be at the rate applicable in terms of the Highest Rate of Injury Pension in Part III of the Third Schedule to the Social Security Act Provided that any rate of pension payable under this article shall, as from the 14th day of April, 1975, be increased by the amount of two euros and ten cents (2.10) per week.