§ CAPTAIN NOLANasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, If he intends this Session to bring in a Bill to permit in non-contributory Unions in Ireland voluntary aid to primary education being reckoned in the same manner that rates are reckoned in contributory Unions 1833 (under the Act 38 and 39 Vic. c. 96), towards an increase of the teachers' salaries; if he will in such a Bill reckon as voluntary aid the annual value of school buildings, school furniture, and assistance in school teaching, when afforded by unsalaried persons; and, if he will state what is the present sum per head of the population contributed by the State towards education in Ireland in non-contributory Unions, and what is the sum per head in Scotland?
§ SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACHSir, I do not anticipate that I shall introduce a Bill this Session of the kind sketched out in the first and second paragraph of the hon. and gallant Member's Question. I also fear that I cannot supply him with the information which he asks for in the third paragraph precisely in the form which he desires, because it would be very difficult to separate the cost of administration and inspection in non-contributing Unions in Ireland from the expenditure for the same purposes in contributing Unions. But I may inform him that it appears, from the Estimates of the present year, that it is proposed that the State should contribute 2s. 7¼d. per head of the population towards public elementary education in Scotland and 2s. 4½d. per head in Ireland. It is fair to add, however, that much of the Scotch Vote is due to building grants, and must, therefore, be of an exceptional character; and that judging from the amount received by way of local contributions in Scotland during the year ending the 30th of September, 1875, and from the last Report of the Commissioners of Irish Education, it would seem probable that five times as much will be received in Scotland during the present year by way of local contributions as can be expected in Ireland.