§ MR. VESEY KNOXI beg to ask the Secretary to the Treasury whether information has been, or will be, supplied 283 to the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland showing the amount of any supplementary Estimate for the purposes of the English Education Fee Grant for 1896–97, in order to enable the Commissioners to frame a proportionate Supplementary Estimate, if they should think that course desirable; and, whether information has been, or will be, supplied to the Commissioners showing the proposed English Estimate for 1897–98?
§ MR. HANBURYThe hon. Member's question assumes that the Irish grant for 1896–97 is proportionate to the English grant. If this was the case it might be necessary to ask for information as to the English grant, though of course the inquiry should be addressed to the Education Department, not to the Treasury. He must, however, be aware that the system was changed a year ago, and that the Irish grant for 1896–97 is not an equivalent grant, but a capitation grant, based, as in the rest of the United Kingdom, on the average attendance in the schools of the country. The Irish Commissioners could only require a Supplementary Estimate if it appears that the average attendance was under-estimated when the original Estimate was fixed, and that is information which they themselves alone possess.