MR. PATRICK O'BRIENI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland will he explain why the future scale of salaries for National teachers is omitted in the extract from the forthcoming rules of the Commissioners presented to Parliament last week; and whether he can state the future scale of salaries; whether he has observed that, by Rules 11, 12, and 13 of this extract, all assistant teachers and highly classed teachers at present in charge of small schools are degraded from the rank they previously won by good service and success at examinations and whether he will advise the Commissioners of National Education to rule that every teacher at present in the service shall continue to retain his classification, and to be described officially as of his present rank until promoted or depressed by the rules which were in force when he won that class; whether he is aware that, by the operation of the same rules, teachers in small schools are made ineligible for promotion, and thereby prevented from qualifying for the pension of a higher class to which they were formerly entitled to aspire; and if he can take any steps to remedy this alleged grievance.
§ MR. G. W. BALFOURThe future scale of salaries is omitted in the extract 664 from the new code of the Commission as it has not yet been fixed by the Commissioners and submitted to the Irish Government and the Treasury. It is impossible to state the future scale of salaries except approximately. It is not true that by Rules 11, 12, and 13 all assistant teachers, and highly-classed teachers at present in charge of small schools, are degraded from the rank they previously won by success at examinations. Every teacher at present in the service will be described officially according to his position in the old class and the new grade in the Annual Register of Teachers. It is impossible to reply to the third paragraph of the question at present, as the necessary modifications of the pension rules have not yet been made.