§ MR. VESEY KNOX (Londonderry)I beg to ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his offer to pay £76,000 of fee grant arrears to the Irish National teachers is conditional on any and what action on their part; whether the Treasury undertake to find any sums which may be required to pay pensions to all present and future teachers according to the scales in the new pension rules, if the teachers make good out of their contributions one-fourth of the sums which may prove to be needed to provide those pensions; and whether he intends that this undertaking should take legislative form in the event of it 924 being accepted by the teachers as satisfactory?
§ MR. HANBURYThe Chancellor of the Exchequer asks me to reply to this Question. His offer, as stated at the time, and also in his reply on 4th August to the honourable Member for East Mayo, was conditional on the acceptance by the teachers of the new pension rules and the obligation to pay one-fourth of the sums needed to provide the pensions. The answer to the second paragraph is in the affirmative. The Chancellor of the Exchequer sees no necessity for legislation.