§ MR. DEVLIN (Kilkenny, N.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he can state if a retired national teacher in receipt of a disablement pension elects to accept a capital sum in lieu of pension, the Superintendent of the Teachers' Pension Fund will pay him the capital sum (their other conditions being fulfilled) immediately on the expiration of one year from the date of his retirement, 901 even though such retirement takes place other than the last day of a quarter; and whether he will arrange to have the capital sum paid as soon as the Lord Lieutenant and the Treasury sanction the pension, and the teacher agrees to commute it, instead of delaying it for a year.
(Answered by Mr. Elliot.) The superintendent of the National School Teachers' Superannuation Office has been advised that it would be illegal to commute a disablement pension until a year has elapsed from the date of the teacher's first receipt of the pension. The suggested abolition of the interval of a year would require the abrogation of No. 10 (3) of the Irish Teachers' Pension Rules, 1897, and I am unable to recommend this change.