MR. PATRICK O'BRIENI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether the Commissioners of National Education (Ireland) received a memorandum from the teachers at present at the course of hand and eye training in Marlborough Street, requesting an increase in the personal allowance of 3s. per day given them while in Lublin attending the lectures; and, if so, what action have the Board taken on the matter; have the Board acknowledged the receipt of that memorandum, or communicated their decision on it to those teachers; and can he state whether the teacher's who attended a course of lectures in 1883 to prepare them for the office of organiser received 7s. 6d. as personal allowance per diem, and have the Commissioners refused to grant even 3s. per day to the majority of Dublin teachers attending the course; and, seeing that those teachers have sacrificed their annual holidays, and in many cases have provided substitutes in their schools at their own expense, to forward the new scheme of the Board without any prospect of personal gain, whether he will recommend that proper allowance is made in all cases.
§ The CHIEF SECRETARY FOR IRELAND (Mr. G. W. BALFOUR,) Leeds, CentralThe Memorandum referred to has been received and considered by the 974 Commissioners. The claim of the teachers to an increased personal allowance is not regarded as just or reasonable, and they will be so informed. The teachers residing in Dublin are, of course, not entitled to any such allowance. As the teachers are bound to qualify themselves for giving instruction in the new manual work, their reference to the sacrificing their convenience in the matter of vacation, or in providing substitutes for this purpose, seems to be uncalled for.