§ MR. SEXTONasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Whether, having regard to the public interest felt in the preservation and extension among the Irish people of a knowledge of the grammar and literature of the Irish language, and to the fact that in the Irish speaking districts of Ireland the parents of the children attending the National Schools are generally unable to afford any payment for extra fees, the Treasury will sanction the removal of Irish from Class b to Class a in the programme of extra subjects issued by the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland; and, whether, considering that the need of working for a subsistence obliges a great proportion of the pupils of the National 1197 Schools in Ireland to give up attending school long before the course of instruction can be completed, the Treasury will sanction the payment of results' fees to teachers in respect of pupils in the second class and upwards proficient in the Irish language?
§ MR. W. E. FORSTERSir, I must preface my reply to this Question and to other Questions respecting education in Ireland by acknowledging that I have not yet had time to consider the working of the Irish system. I hope to do so when I go to Ireland. If the hon. Member will confer with me privately I think I can show him that his object would not be attained by the removal of the Irish language from Class b to Class a in the programme of extra subjects. As regards his second Question, I cannot encourage the teaching of Irish or of any other difficult extra subject to children in the second, third, and fourth classes. The hon. Member refers to the need of working for subsistence. That need obliges children in the lower classes to give their time almost exclusively to reading, writing, and ciphering.