HC Deb 30 July 1883 vol 282 cc928-30
MR. SYNAN

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether he has made inquiries into the circumstances connected with the letting of the Mungret Agricultural School and Model Farm, in the county of Limerick, and the shutting up of the National School connected therewith; whether said School has been shut up by order of the Lord Lieutenant and consent of the Lords of the Treasury, or by the Trustees of the Local Act of 42 and 43 Vic. c. 220; whether the shutting up of said School is warranted by the said Act; and, whether the Government will direct the Commissioners of National Education to erect another school for the parish of Mungret, or order the said Trustees to pay the one-third of the Grant required by the said Commissioners out of the rents and profits of said Buildings and Model Farm, or to restore the said schoolhouse to the parish?

MR. TREVELYAN

Sir, I have made inquiry into the circumstances of this school. So long as the Mungret Farm and buildings were under the control of the Commissioners of National Education, they maintained there a vested male national school, whereby the parish of Mungret gained an exceptional, and, as it may be said, an accidental advantage in the matter of school accommodation. Under the provisions of the local Act to which the hon. Member refers, the premises passed from under the control of the Commissioners to the trustees mentioned therein, and the national school has been recognized as a non-vested school, and as such its continuance depends altogether on the will of its patron or manager. It has not been shut up, as stated in the Question, but has been transferred by the trustees to temporary premises, where it is being carried on pending the erection of a new schoolhouse on a site provided for the purpose under the terms of the Act. As I am advised, this removal of the school was warranted by the Act, which made provision for the grant of a new site, and contained no direction to the trustees to maintain the national school in its original quarters. The Commissioners of National Education have already made a grant of two-thirds of the cost of the erection of a new schoolhouse, and that is the maximum grant they are empowered to make. As I have already stated, I am advised that the trustees are under no obligation to maintain the national school; and, therefore, I do not think that the Government could direct them to pay the remaining one-third of the cost. As, however, the hon. Member and those in whose interests he asks this Question appear to be of a different opinion, I have proposed to take further advice on the subject; and with a view to make the case upon which the opinion is taken quite complete on all sides, I have invited the hon. Member to favour me with a statement of the grounds upon which this claim is put forward.

MR. SYNAN

said, he would repeat the Question on Monday next, by which time he supposed the right hon. Gentleman would have the opinion of the Law Officers. The facts were fully set forth both in the present and in the former Question he asked on this subject. The whole question was, whether the trustees had the power to transfer the school to other premises?