§ MR. D. MACALEESE (Monaghan, N.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, if it be the case that the manager of an Irish National School, in erecting a residence for a teacher, has to provide a site, to pay for the lease, to keep the house in proper repair when built, and to pay the taxes; and, whether the Act of 1892 or any other Act has extended any relief to managers desirous to provide residences for their teachers, or is it the intention of the Government that such residences should be increased?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURApplicants for loans under the Acts of 1875 and 1884 to provide residences for National School teachers, have, as a precedent condition of obtaining the loans, to provide the sites, and to bear the legal expenses, including the cost of the leases, etc. The Commissioners of National Education require, as a condition of their paying in relief of the applicants a moiety of the annual rent-charge on the loan, that the residences shall be kept in suitable repair. The remaining moiety may be charged to the teachers as rent for the residences. This is the only relief afforded to managers 412 desirous of providing residences under the Acts of 1875 and 1884, but in the case of grants for residences made directly by the Commissioners the leases are prepared by the Commissioners free of cost. There is no limitation to the number of loans that may be granted each year for teachers' residences. Exclusive of grants for the erection of residences on sites already vested in the Commissioners of National Education or in trustees, the number of applications that have been certified for loans for such residences since 1875 when the loans first become available, is 1171.
§ DR. ROBERT AMBROSE (Mayo, W.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland—(1) whether he is aware that great dissatisfaction prevails amongst the candidates for the second division of the first class of national school teachers as to the result of the July examinations; and (2) whether, in view of the fact that the Commissioners reduced the percentage of marks required for the first division, he will recommend that the same course will be adopted with regard to the second division of the first class?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe Commissioners were made aware last year that dissatisfaction existed among unsuccessful candidates for promotion to higher grades, including candidates for promotion to the second division of the first class. The Commissioners had the exercises of the candidates concerned revised by their Head Inspectors, and where the results of the revision, in the opinion of the Commissioners, warranted it, the promotion was sanctioned. The second part of the Question must be based on some misapprehension. No reduction has been made in the percentage of marks required for the first division, and, therefore, the alleged ground for reducing the second division does not exist.