Firm retains one’s pass to deal out (8)
I believe the answer is:
dispense
'deal out' is the definition.
(I know that deal out can be written as dispense)
'firm retains one's pass' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'one's' could be 'is' (Roman numeral) and 'is' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dispense that I've seen before include "Issue (e.g. medicine); do (with)out" , "let off?" , "Portion out as chemist does" , "Prepare and give out, as chemist does medicines" , "Supply (prescription)" .)