§ MR. MACARTNEYI beg, on behalf of the hon. Member for Mid Armagh, to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that the National Board of Education appointed four Roman Catholics as their nominees on the School Attendance Committee for Newry; that the Newry Town Commissioners, two-thirds of whom are Protestants, appointed three Protestants and one Roman Catholic; and that the committee as constituted includes three Roman Catholic clergymen and no Protestant clergymen; and whether he can see his way to take any action in the matter?
MR. J. MORLEYThe Newry Town Commissioners originally appointed four lay members to act on the School Attendance Committee, of whom one is a Roman Catholic and three are Protestants. The National Education Commissioners appointed as their half of the committee four Roman Catholics, three of whom are clergymen. The three Protestant lay members appointed by the Local Authority have, however, since resigned, and three Protestant clerical managers of schools have been appointed in their stead by the Local Authority. The constitution of the committee now stands thus:—Appointed by Local Authority, one Roman Catholic and three Protestant clergymen of different denominations; appointed by the National Board, four Roman Catholics, of whom three are clergymen. I have no information as to the proportions of Catholics and Protestants on the Town Councils, but the ratio of the Catholic to the Protestant population of Newry is as two to one.