§ MR. W. J. CORBETasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether he is aware that the Catholic clergy who are managers of schools do not as a rule care to employ teachers from the Government training school, and that scarcely one-third of the principal teachers in Catholic schools have had the benefit of special training; whether he will make suitable provision for Catholic training schools in Ireland; and, whether he will advise the Commissioners of Education, now that the English Code allows an assistant teacher in any school having an average of 60 pupils, to adopt the same rule in Ireland?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. W. M. JOHNSON)Sir, I am informed that it is a fact that the Catholic clergy, who are the ecclesiastical managers of schools, do not, as a rule, employ teachers trained in Marlborough Street Schools, although, of course, it is open to them to do so. I cannot state the exact proportion of untrained principal teachers in Catholic schools; but there need not be these untrained teachers if the trained teachers were availed of. The inquiries in the two last paragraphs of this Question are matters of policy, and not of administration suitable for a reply to a Question.