§ MR. BIGGAR (Cavan, W.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, If the Roman Catholic students in the Government Training College receive religious instruction from the teachers, without the guidance and control of any clergyman; and, if the vast majority of those students who have obtained situations as teachers in National schools are teaching in County Kerry?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR) (Manchester, E.)The Commissioners of National Education inform me that no Roman Catholic clergyman attends at the Marlborough Street Training College for the purpose of giving religious instruction to the students; but these students receive most careful religious instruction from the head teachers of the Central Model Schools, who are Roman Catholics, and also regularly attend religious instruction and religious ministrations in the Roman Catholic Church, in regard to which extensive arrangements exist. With respect to the concluding portion of the Question, the Commissioners state that about 30 per cent of the Roman Catholic students who left the Training College during the last five years are now employed in National schools in Kerry.