§ MR. P. J. O'BRIEN (Tipperary, N.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland what is the lowest class for a teacher and the lowest average attendance for a school to qualify for the special consideration mentioned in Rule 112 (e) of the 1905 issue of the Rules and Regulations of the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland; and will this rule apply retrospectively to those teachers who, being trained or in training when the revised salary rules came into operation on April 1st, 1900, have been compelled, irrespective of their classification and the importance of the schools entrusted to their charge, to accept third grade salary on their appointment as principals.
(Answered by Mr. Walter Long.) The Commissioners require a classification of first division of second class; and they reserve to themselves the power of deciding, according to the merits of each case, whether the school is, in the terms of the rule, "large and important." The special consideration mentioned in the rule is given only to those assistants who were in the service before April, 1900, and who may now be appointed principals.