asked the Minister for Education whether widowers of teachers qualify for ex-gratia payments; and, if not, if he will arrange to have them included in the qualifying category.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Ex-gratia Payments for Widowers of Teachers.
34.
The further ex-gratia payments now being made have been sanctioned in the case of surviving pensioners and surviving widows of pensioners. Widowers do not come within the scope of the concession and it is not the intention to include them.
There are only a few widowers to whom this question applies and it does seem a strange thing that while widows qualify, widowers do not.
Surely the Deputy is forgetting that he was a member of the Government which introduced measures refusing to give gratuities to teachers who retired before the 31st January, 1951? Does he forget that it was the succeeding Government which made available ex-gratia payments to the extent of about one-third of the gratuity; that again in 1956 he was a member of a Government which specifically denied the right of these people to payment of the balance of the gratuity and took the decision that they would not give any such gratuity and that it was only subsequently, when a Fianna Fáil Government came in again and the economy of the country improved, that it was possible to pay the balance?
First, I want to thank the Minister for the kindly sermon, he has given.
It is a statement of facts.
Secondly, I repeat the question I put to him before: why put this injustice over on widowers?
Where was the justice in 1956?
I am not talking about 1956. I am talking about the award the Minister made a couple of months ago. Why cut out widowers and give it to widows? Why make fish of one and flesh of another?
You made fish of the whole lot.