HC Deb 10 February 1904 vol 129 cc1332-3
MR.LUNDON (Limerick, E.)

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that Mr. Michael Quinlan, of Bruff, county Limerick, on 29th September last wrote to the Office of National Education, Ireland, asking for the extension of the evening school grant to Bruff, and was informed that the application would be referred to the inspector for report; that the school was opened on the following week, a committee being duly formed; that subsequently, as a result of the inspector's visit, aid was refused to the school on the alleged want of qualification on the part of the teacher, Mr. P. J. Casey, who conducts a school in the town with an average of forty pupils, teaching the various branches of English education; that in December, on a further application, a senior inspector was tent down, who also reported that aid could not be granted for the school, although the teacher was not examined and had made sixty two attendances out of the necessary seventy; and, if so, will he say in what way the teacher lacks the necessary qualifications, and arrange that the teacher shall be given the chance of an examination to prove his competency for the position.

MR. WYNDHAM

The inspector who reported on the first application declined to recommend a grant, and the senior inspector, to whom the second application was referred, also declined to recommend it. The qualifications of the teacher was only one of the considerations upon which the decision of the Commissioners was based. The matter is not one calling for the intervention of the Government.