§ MR. FLYNN (Cork, N.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been called to the Report of the Intermediate Education Board for Ireland for 1903, dealing with the subject of the establishment of a system of permanent inspection of the working of intermediate education; whether he is aware that the Board, in June, 1903, forwarded a resolution to the Under-Secretary to the effect that they desired to impress on the Lord-Lieutenant the great urgency of appointing permanent inspectors as a necessary part of the reforms aimed at by the Act of 1900; and, if so, what is the cause of delay in the adoption of a system of inspection declared to be urgent by the Board responsible for the working of secondary education in Ireland.
§ MR. WYNDHAMYes, Sir. The Government has not refused to provide for a system of inspection. It has only refused to establish, at the present moment, a system of inspection conducted by a staff of permanent Civil servants; and both on financial and educational grounds it adheres to that position until the question of the parts which examination and inspection are respectively to play in the distribution of State aid to the schools has been settled. This is one of the matters now under investigation by the Committee of Inquiry into Intermediate Education in Ireland.
§ MR. FLYNNIs the right hon. Gentleman not aware that the Commissioners of Intermediate Education fifteen years ago reported against the present system and a supplementary system was set up.
§ † See (4) Debates, cxxxiv., 394.
650§ MR. WYNDHAMYes; but I have said the whole matter is now under investigation.