§ SIR THOMAS ESMONDE (Kerry, W.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland if, in view of the impossibility in some country schools in Ireland of maintaining the average of attendance required under the existing rules relating to assistant teachers, he would consider the advisability of recommending an extension of the rule regulating average attendance to two years, instead of, as at present, two consecutive quarters, for assistant teachers of long standing in the service of the Board of National Education?
MR. J. MORLEYAs already stated, the Irish Government, in 1879, considered 70 as the minimum average daily attendance that would require the aid of an assistant teacher. The Commissioners have no intention of proposing any alteration in the Rule then made at the instance of the Irish Government, or any change in the liberal provisions existing in the Rules—namely, for two quarters' pay after the average has fallen below 70, and for even further periods of indulgence in cases of epidemic, severe weather, or such like causes of exceptional and temporary nature.