Vol. 506 No. 4
60 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Education and Science the specific pension arrangements, if any, in place or under consideration to provide some compensation for women teachers who had to give up their positions prior to 1958 because of the marriage bar. [14951/99]
The position is that under regulations in place between 1934 and 1958 female national school teachers were required to resign on marriage. The marriage bar applied to teachers who were appointed for the first time between 1 October 1934 and 30 June 1958.
With effect from 1 July 1958, female teachers were no longer required to resign on marriage. Furthermore female teachers who had resigned on marriage were free to seek appointments and return to the teaching service.
The effect of the marriage bar was that the pensionable service of female teachers appointed after 30 September 1934 and who married prior to 1 July 1958 was interrupted. Similar provisions were in operation at that time throughout the public service.
In 1979 it was agreed that teachers who were then in service and who had been in training in 1934 at the time the bar was introduced would be given pensionable credit of up to five years in respect of interruptions in service resulting from the marriage bar. With this sole exception, there are no provisions for making such interruptions in service pensionable. Any further proposals in this regard would have to be considered in a public service wide context and this is a matter for my colleague, the Minister for Finance.
