§ MR. O'SHAUGHNESSY (Limerick, W.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he can say why it is that amalgamation of boys and girls shall not be enforced by the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland unless the average attendance in each school is under thirty, while in the ease of new schools to be erected the building grant will not be given by the Commissioners unless the manager consents to have the schools amalgamated where the average attendance is under fifty; and whether he will recommend the Commissioners not to enforce amalgamation in both cases unless the average attendance be under fifty.
(Answered by Mr. Walter Long.) A second teacher is not employed at schools with an average attendance of less than fifty pupils. The Commissioners consider that schools which have but one teacher are necessarily inefficient, and therefore they decline to make building grants for new separate schools for boys and girls unless there will be an attendance sufficient for the employment of a second teacher at each school. But, in the case of existing separate schools for boys and girls, they do not think it desirable to insist on amalgamation unless the average at either school falls below thirty. The last inquiry in this Question seems to be based, on a misapprehension. The Commissioners do not enforce amalgamation in any case unless the average attendance is under fifty.