I am receiving correspondence from a variety of women who were deprived of their livelihood when there was a ban on married women working in the public service in the 1950s. One lady who was a teacher wrote to me last week from County Mayo with a most sorrowful story. She was stopped from teaching in the mid-fifties when she married, and because she was a member of the Church of Ireland her chances of getting a school after the ban was lifted was even more difficult. She eventually obtained a teaching job in a Catholic school but missed valuable years of service for which she has been penalised severely. She now lives on a pittance of a pension compared to what she should have got.
There are thousands of these cases coming up now. What consideration has the Minister for such people? There must be a huge element of discrimination here. It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that some women or a group of women will contest this issue in a court of law. Do we want another protracted and costly case in the European Court? Fair play demands that such women do not suffer twice in their lifetime. They suffered as a result of being told to stay at home when they should have been allowed to work and now they are suffering because they are not receiving the same pension entitlements as every other person in the service who had been allowed to continue to work on marriage.
There is a very reasonable case here. This will be a very serious problem because it is only at this stage that this sort of case will arise. In all justice the Government should take a very close look at this issue because there is discrimination, and it will have to be addressed some time. It is in this country that it should be addressed and not in Europe as in some former cases which have cost the taxpayer dearly.