HC Deb 09 May 1905 vol 145 cc1334-5
MR. SLOAN

To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that the Com missioners of National Education have given a grant to the new Cloncore School, where the ave age attendance for quarter ending 31st March was fifty-seven, and fifty-six of the pupils in attendance were withdrawn from other schools in which more than sufficient accommodation already existed, that the Waveney Applicant School, Ballymena, had ninety-one pupils under eight years of age on roll in December last, thirty-three of these were never at school before, thirty-five were withdrawn from an overcrowded school, Guy's Infants (accommodation for 155, average attendance for year with Waveney School in operation 156), and a number came from other schools outside Ballymena, that the Commissioners refuse to recognise the Waveney School upon the ground that the children in attendance were withdrawn from other schools in which sufficient accommodation already existed; and whether, in view of the fact that a grant to Waveney School was refused upon this ground, he will explain why the same objection was not made or insisted upon to the Cloncore application.

(Answered by Mr. Walter Long.) The Commissioners granted aid to the new Cloncore ("Cloncore Upper ") National School from May 1st, 1904. According to the inspector's report on the application for aid, dated July 2nd, 1904, fifty-six of the seventy-four pupils on the rolls came from other schools. The average attendance for the quarter ended March 31st, 1905, was fifty-seven, but what proportion of this average attendance represented children drawn from other schools cannot be stated. For the facts as to the Waveney School I beg to refer to my replies to the hon. Member's Questions of the 3rd,† 11th,† and 19th,‡ April last. The cases of the Waveney and Cloncore applications are not identical. The Commissioners gave their most careful consideration to each case upon its merits, and, in the exercise of the discretion vested in them, refused aid in the one case and granted it in the other.