MR. SULLIVANasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Whether it is true that at a recent meeting of the Commissioners of National Education for Ireland, a proposal was submitted for effecting a serious alteration in the present constitution of the Board, by, amongst other changes, the appointment of a second paid Commissioner; and, whether he will lay upon the Table Copies of the Minutes of the proceedings of the Irish National Education Board at its meeting of the 12th ult. and of any communications which may have passed between Members of the Board and any Members or officials of the Government as to such a proposal to create a second paid Commissionership of Irish Education?
§ SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH, in reply, said, that at a recent meeting of the Commissioners of National Education a suggestion was, he believed, somewhat informally made of the kind to which the hon. Member alluded. That meeting of the Commissioners was called for the purpose of discussing the Report of the Departmental Committee of the Treasury which had been referred to them by the Government for consideration, a Report which did not at all deal with the number or payment of the Commissioners of the National Board of Education. He did not think that there would be any objection to the production of a copy of the Minute to which the hon. Gentleman referred or of any official communication that might have passed upon the question; but if the hon. Member would let him know what Papers he desired to move for, he should be able to give him a definite reply.