Ok, I hear you better now - and of course I mean (A) and not (1) was correct from your original post. What you may have missed a bit is that it's a pre-requisite to be valid at the START (only) for the FIRST MPA type only. If you go on to obtain more, then you don't need the ME/IR to be valid at the start of the 2nd/3rd/4th.... type ratings!
Hope that clears it up.
VJW
(I use to work in PLD issuing licences
)