HC Deb 21 July 1884 vol 290 cc1736-7
MR. KENNY

asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether it is true that Mr. J. G. Fitzgerald, late District Inspector of National Schools in Ireland, addressed certain Letters to the secretaries of the Commissioners of National Education on the 8th, 24th, and 28th of May 1882; whether those Letters were an appeal to nineteen of the Commissioners from the conduct and action of the senior secretary, Dr. Newell, one of the paid Commissioners; and, if so, what were the decisions of the Commissioners appealed to at their first subsequent consideration of the Letters referred to; whether the senior secretary and the paid Commissioner attended at those meetings, and took part in the proceedings; and, whether he will cause those Letters, or else authenticated Copies of them, to be laid upon the Table of the House during the present Session of Parliament?

MR. TREVELYAN

In January, 1879, Mr. Fitzgerald was dismissed by the Commissioners of National Education from the office of District Inspector of National Schools, in consequence of his having endeavoured to obtain payment from the Commissioners of an expenditure not incurred in the Public Service, and of the grave misstatements and contradictions by which he endeavoured to sustain this improper claim. This decision of the Board was, on successive appeals from Mr. Fitzgerald, reconsidered by the Commissioners, who, on the 20th May, 1879, made a final order declining to accede to his applica- tion for a new inquiry. Three years later, in 1882, but not on the precise dates specified in the Question, Mr. Fitzgerald addressed a printed statement and various letters to the Secretaries, appealing for a reconsideration of his case. This appeal was, after careful consideration, adversely decided upon by the Commissioners on the 7th November, 1882. The Resident Commissioner and the Senior Secretary were not present on that occasion—the former on account of illness, the latter because it was not his turn for duty. I do not think any public advantage would result from laying the Papers on the Table, or that it would be proper to do so. The Commissioners inform me that they contain very scurrilous and unfounded statements with respect to officials connected with their Department.