HC Deb 14 February 1917 vol 90 c636W
Mr. KEATING

asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland if he is aware that the Ladyswell national school, Kilkenny, was closed in 1898 through lack of attendance; that Mr. Michael Martin, the school teacher, was retired from the service on a pension of £6 a year and a lump sum of £35; that he had to subsist on this pension until ten years ago, when he was appointed school attendant at the Callan Workhouse, Kilkenny, at a salary of £12 a year, plus board and lodging, in the workhouse; that he is unable to adequately keep his wife and family out of this sum; and that one of his sons, Gunner John Martin, was killed in action last July; and will he take steps to have the case of Mr. Martin reconsidered, with a view to making him a further grant?

Mr. DUKE

The Ladyswell National School, county Kilkenny, was struck off the roll of national schools, and all Grants cancelled, from the 30th June, 1898, as it was no longer required in the locality and the average attendance of pupils was insufficient for the continuance of ordinary Grants. Mr. Michael Martin, the teacher of this school, retired from that date on the ground of permanent incapacity for further service as a national school teacher, and was awarded an immediate payment of £34 5s. and a disablement pension of £6 8s. 8d. per annum. The disablement pension was subsequently commuted in the following year for a lump sum of £93 12s. 6d. These awards were made under the Teachers' Pension Act Rules, and it is not possible to reopen the matter now.