§ CAPTAIN DONELANOn behalf of the hon. Member for North Leitrim, I beg to ask the Chief Secretary for Ireland has his attention been called to the case of Daniel Moynihan, who had been for 36 years teacher of the Six-Mile-Bridge National School, near Killamey, who died suddenly in the first week of January in the present year, having taught his school on Monday 4th January, and was buried on the following Saturday; was the deceased teacher highly proficient, and entitled to a retiring allowance if he had applied for it; will he explain why the application of the widow and six orphans of the deceased, who are now destitute, for the retiring allowance to which the deceased was entitled was refused; and will this case be reconsidered?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe teacher referred to rendered service up to the 1st February (not January), and died on the 4th of that month, the day on which he resigned. His service had been satisfactory, and had his health been certified as broken down, and his application for a retiring gratuity been received in due time prior to his death, there is no reason to suppose that a gratuity would not have been awarded in the case. But there is no legal power to award a gratuity to the representatives of a deceased teacher where death occurs before the grant is made. In such cases the premiums paid by the deceased teacher to the Pension Fund are refunded to his representatives with interest, and this has been done in the present case. There is no basis for reconsideration of the case.
MR. T. M. HEALYThis sort of case occurs every year, and questions of this kind are put over and over again, will the right hon. Gentleman bring in a Bill to remedy the law in this respect?
§ [No reply was given.]