§ MR. T. M. HEALYTo ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he will state when the applications from managers of national schools during several months past for aid towards building or reconstructing ordinary national schools will be finally dealt with by the Commissioners of National Education; and will he explain why the Commissioners continue year after year to lavish public money on subsidising unnecessary small schools, and on model schools, instead of helping the managers to meet the requirements of the ordinary national schools.
(Answered by Mr. Wyndham.) In urgent cases the Commissioners have been prepared to allow the building of schools to proceed under the old regulations and on the old plans if the managers so desired. The Financial Secretary to the Treasury, has already stated that a decision on the recommendations of the Committee on Building Grants would be deferred until the inquiry into the existing educational system in Ireland is completed. The Report on that inquiry, which deals, amongst other things, with the model schools, is at present engaging the consideration of Government.