An Act for improving the position of the Teachers of National Schools in Ireland.
Whereas it is expedient to make provision for the superannuation of the teachers of national schools in Ireland, and to afford greater facilities for providing residences for such teachers as expressed by this Act:
Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
Preliminary.
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Short title and commencement of Act.1 Short title and commencement of Act.
1. This Act may be cited for all purposes as theNational School Teachers (Ireland) Act, 1879, and shall, except as otherwise expressed, commence and come into operation on the first day of January one thousand eight hundred and eighty.
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Interpretation of terms.2 Interpretation of terms.
2. In this Act the term ‘the Lord Lieutenant’ means the Lord Lieutenant or other Chief Governor or Governors of Ireland for the time being:
The term ‘the Commissioners of Education’ means the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland:
The term ‘the Treasury’ means the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury:
The term ‘prescribed’ means prescribed by rules to be made by the Treasury with the consent of the Lord Lieutenant:
The term ‘classed teachers’ means such principal and assistant teachers of model or ordinary national schools as receive salaries from and are classed according to the regulations of the Commissioners of Education.
Pensions.
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Funds to be provided out of Irish Church surplus.3 Funds to be provided out of Irish Church surplus.
3. The Commissioners of Church Temporalities in Ireland shall, out of the property accruing to them under the Irish Church Act, 1869, when and as required by the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt, with the consent of the Lord Lieutenant and the Treasury, provide for the purposes of this Act, either in cash or in securities or rentcharges of an equivalent value, such sums, not exceeding in the whole the sum of one million three hundred thousand pounds sterling, as the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt shall from time to time certify to be required for the purposes of this Act. So loner as the said capital sum of one million three hundred thousand pounds, or any part of it, remains outstanding in the hands of the Commissioners of Church Temporalities, they shall on the first day of July and the first day of January in each year pay to the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt interest on the said sum or on the balance thereof remaining unpaid from time to time at the rate of three pounds per cent. per annum. The said sum, with the interest thereof, is in this Act styled ‘The Pension Fund.’
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Deductions from salaries of teachers.4 Deductions from salaries of teachers.
4. The Commissioners of Education shall deduct in the prescribed manner from the salary paid by them to every classed teacher entitled to the benefit of this Act the amount which they are required to deduct in each case in accordance with the provisions of the schedule to this Act. All such deductions shall be paid to the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt in the prescribed manner, and, together with the interest thereon, shall form part of the pension fund.
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Investment of pension fund.5 Investment of pension fund.
5. The pension fund shall be invested by the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt in such and the like securities as the said Commissioners are authorised by law to purchase on account of savings banks, and the said Commissioners shall, in respect of all such moneys, have such and the like powers as are now vested by law in the said Commissioners in respect of moneys received by them on account of savings banks; and a separate and distinct account shall be kept by the said Commissioners of all receipts, investments, sales, and repayments; and a balance sheet of such account from the first of January to the thirty-first of December in every year shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament not later than the thirty-first of March in the following year.
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Award of retiring allowances.6 Award of retiring allowances.
6. It shall be lawful for the Lord Lieutenant, with the consent of the Treasury, to grant to any classed teacher of a national school in Ireland, on his retirement from the service, a pension or gratuity according to the scale, and subject to the provisions contained in the schedule to this Act, chargeable upon the pension fund, and to be paid in the prescribed manner.
If any question arises as to the claim of any person or class of persons for a pension or gratuity under this Act, it shall be referred to the Treasury, whose decision shall be final.
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Commissioners of National Debt may advance funds.7 Commissioners of National Debt may advance funds.
7. The Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt may, if they think fit, from time to time, until the payment to them of the whole of the said capital sum of one million three hundred thousand pounds, make advances for the purposes of this Act, and may apply for that purpose any funds for the time being in their hands under the authority of the Act passed in the session of Parliament held in the twenty-fourth year of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter fourteen, and the Act passed in the session of Parliament held in the twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh years of the same reign, chapter eighty-seven, or either of such Acts. All such advances shall be repaid to the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt out of the pension fund, with interest at the rate of three and a half per centum per annum, in the prescribed manner. If at any time the pension fund shall be insufficient for the repayment of such advances, the Treasury, upon being duly informed thereof by the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt, shall issue the amount of such deficiency out of the Consolidated Fund of the United Kingdom, or out of the growing produce thereof, and the Treasury shall certify such deficiency to Parliament.
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Extension of borrowing powers of Commissioners of Church Temporalities.8 Extension of borrowing powers of Commissioners of Church Temporalities.
8. The several provisions of the Irish Church Act, 1869, with respect to the raising of money by the Commissioners of Church Temporalities in Ireland, and the giving of security for the repayment thereof, and of interest thereon, and with respect to advances to be made by the Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt to the said Commissioners of Church Temporalities, and with respect to the powers of the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury in relation to the money so to be raised, shall be extended and shall apply to the purposes of this Act as fully as such provisions apply to the purposes of the Irish Church Act, 1869.
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Retirement of teachers.9 Retirement of teachers.
9. From and after the commencement of this Act, every classed teacher of a national school shall, unless permitted by the Commissioners of Education to continue in the service, retire at the age of sixty-five years in the case of males and at the age of sixty years in the case of females.
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Power to Treasury to make rules.10 Power to Treasury to make rules.
10. At any time after the passing of this Act, the Treasury, with the consent of the Lord Lieutenant, may from time to time make rules for the administration of this Act. Copies of all such rules shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament within fourteen days from the date thereof, if Parliament is then sitting, and if not, then within fourteen days from the next re-assembling of Parliament.
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Schedule to be deemed part of Act.11 Schedule to be deemed part of Act.
11. The schedule to this Act shall be construed and have effect as part of this Act. The rules in the schedule to this Act may from time to time be revoked, varied, and added to by the Lord Lieutenant with the consent of the Treasury.
S C H E D U L E.
Regulations as to Payment of Premiums, &c.
I.—
1. For the purposes of this schedule, the first division of the first class and the second division of the first class shall be regarded as separate classes.
2. There shall be deducted from the quarterly salary payable to every classed teacher appointed after the passing of this Act, one-fourth part of the premium shown in table A., column 1, against the age of the teacher at the time of appointment. The premium shall not be due until the quarter is completed.
3. A teacher in the third class at the time of the passing of this Act may secure the same advantages by submitting to a deduction from his or her quarterly salary of the fourth part of the premium shown in table A., column 1, against the age at which he or she entered the class.
4. A teacher in a class above the third class at the...
