HC Deb 22 April 1902 vol 106 cc945-6
MR. ROCHE (Galway, E)

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland issued in June, 1900, suggestions for the guidance of local authorities in the preparation of schemes, and in December, 1900, a memorandum as to the powers and procedure of local authorities under the Technical Instruction Acts of 1889 and 1891, and the Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act, 1899; and that in these documents the Department state that rates struck for technical instruction under the Technical Instruction Acts, 1889 and 1891, would carry in addition to the grants under the Agriculture and Technical Instruction (Ireland) Act, 1899, a grant equivalent to the amount of the rate under the Acts of 1889 and 1891; and, seeing that the Galway County Council, who struck rates which produced £773, have been informed that only £407 will be payable, and that the continuance of even this grant is not guaranteed for more than three years, and having regard to the assurances given and to the documents referred to, the Government will arrange that the full amount of the equivalent grant under the Acts of 1889 and 1891 will be made available for technical instruction in the county of Galway, so long as the County Council contributes a like amount.

MR. WYNDHAM

The facts are generally as stated in the first paragraph. There is some doubt whether the grants formerly paid under the Acts of 1889 and 1891 (the administration of which was transferred to the Department of Agriculture by the Act of 1899) are now legally available upon the same conditions as previously. Pending consideration of the matter, however, a tentative arrangement has been made by which a grant in aid will be paid for three years. The amount payable by the Department from this grant to the four institutions in the County Galway which have availed themselves of the provisions of the Acts of 1889 and 1891 was £610, not £407. The former is the equivalent of the amount of the rate actually applied for the purposes mentioned.