§ MR. CLANCYI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been directed to the recently-issued Report of the Board of Intermediate Education for Ireland, and particularly to that portion of it dealing with the question of inspection of intermediate schools; whether he is aware that so far back as June, 1902, the Board submitted to the Government the details of a scheme of inspection which have remained ever since unconsidered, and that the Act of 1900, dealing with this matter, renders it obligatory on the Board, on the Irish Department of the Government, and on the Treasury, to frame and settle a scheme of inspection as a necessary portion of the intermediate system as altered by the Act referred to; and whether, seeing that the Board has discharged its own part of this obligation, he will explain why the Irish Department of the Government and the Treasury, have refused to discharge their portion, and for how long that Department and the Treasury intend to delay the efforts of the Board to carry out its trust.
§ MR. WALTER LONGThe Government did not refuse to provide for a system of inspection. What it did refuse to establish was a system of 1342 inspection conducted by a permanent inspectorate until the question of the parts which examination and inspection respectively played in the distribution of State aid to the schools had been determined. A reference to the Report of Messrs. Dale and Stephens on Intermediate Education will, I think, satisfy the hon. and learned Member of the propriety of the attitude taken by the Government in this matter.
§ MR. CLANCYIs it a fact that of the three parties who have to settle this question, the Government is the only one which hesitates and will not do anything.
§ MR. WALTER LONGNo, Sir.
§ MR. CLANCYBut the Report of the Board says it is. Is not the statement correct?
§ MR. WALTER LONGWe are waiting for a complete scheme to be devised. Until that is done it is obviously impossible for the Government to move further.