§ MR. KNOXI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury when the Report of the Committee on the Irish Teachers' Pension Fund will be published; and whether the Committee considered the question of the desirability of making compassionate grants of the same kind as were made out of the Estimates before the Pension Fund was established?
§ MR. HANBURYThe Report of the Committee and the Treasury Minute upon it were presented yesterday. Up to the Act of 1879 compassionate grants were made out of the Estimates to two sets of teachers—those who retired on account of ago and long service and those who broke down in health at an earlier age. From 1879 pensions have, as a rule, taken the place of gratuities in the case 1530 of retirement from age or long service, and gratuities have been reserved for cases of retirement from ill health. Both the pensions and the gratuities have been charged on the Teachers' Pension Fund. A few teachers, however, who did not come within the terms of the Act, have received gratuities instead of pensions on retirement for age or long service; and the charge for these is still borne on the Estimates, and will continue to be so borne. The Committee considered the question mentioned by the hon. Member so far as regards the existing gratuities on retirement by reason of ill-health, and recommended a modification of the system which will be found in Paragraph 10 of the Report.