§ MR. SYNANasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether he is aware that the Mungret Agricultural School and Model Farm, in the county of Limerick, erected and established by the moneys of the Irish Reproductive Loan Fund belonging to the said county, contained, from its erection, a Male National Schoolhouse for the parish of Mungret; whether, since and under the local Act of the 42 and 43 Vic. c. 220, said buildings and model farm have been let at an annual rent under said Act, and the said Male National Schoolhouse has been shut up, and the parish left without a male school house; and, whether said schoolhouse has been so shut up by and with the order of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and consent of the Lords of Her Majesty's Treasury; and, if so, whether the Government will order the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland, or the trustees under said Act, to apply some portion of the rents and profits of said buildings and model farm to the erection of a male school house for said parish?
§ MR. TREVELYANI am aware, Sir, of the circumstances referred to in the first paragraph of the Question. The hon. Member is, however, not correct in referring to the cost as having been exclusively borne by the Irish Reproductive Loan Fund. It was aided by a Parliamentary Vote. Since the passing of the Local Act referred to, the Male National School has been transferred from the premises where it formerly was held to a separate building on the farm, where it is now in operation, and receives the usual aid from the Board of National Education. More than a year ago the Commissioners made to the manager a grant of £212, being two-thirds of the estimated cost of providing a new school-house; but advantage has not yet been taken of the grant. I am making further inquiry as to whether any letting of the farm or buildings has taken place under the provisions of the Local Act.