§ MR. PENROSE FITZGERALD (Cambridge)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether it is the case that the Commissioners of Irish National Education, in a communication addressed to His Grace the Lord Archbishop of Dublin, and dated 13th December, 1888, stated that they had agreed to submit to the Lords of Her Majesty's Treasury for their sanction a proposal of the Standing Committee of the General Synod of the Church of Ireland, to the effect that the Capitation 342 allowance, which stopped at schools of 15 in average attendance, should be extended to schools of from 10 to 15 in average attendance; whether, in a further communication to the Archbishop in March, 1889, it was stated that the proposal had not received the sanction of the Lords of the Treasury; whether a deputation from the Standing Committee had waited on him (the Chief Secretary) last January, to point out the importance which the Committee attached to the proposed extension of the Capitation allowance, together with the smallness of the amount necessary for carrying it out; and whether, in consideration of the improved financial position of the Treasury, there was a prospect of the requisite sanction soon being obtained?
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURMy hon. Friend is aware that the question to which he refers is one not without difficulty, and it is still under the consideration of Her Majesty's Government.