§ MR. SLOANTo ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he can say when application 1536 was first made to the Commissioners of National Education for a grant for the rebuilding of Guy's Schools, Ballymena; when the Board's inspector reported thereon; whether a site has yet been procured and approved of by the Commissioners; and whether, seeing that one of the Board's senior inspectors reported the necessity for additional suitable accommodation which has not yet been provided, he will explain why this same necessity is now denied in the case of the application for aid to Waveney School, Ballymena, and the grant withheld.
(Answered by Mr. Walter Long.) The application was received on April 5th, 1902, and the inspector's report on May 13th, 1902. As, however, the Commissioners did not regard the case as urgent, its further consideration was postponed pending a decision on the question of proposed new regulations for building grants. But as the delay in deciding this question has been greater than was anticipated, the Commissioners have provisionally sanctioned a grant under the existing regulations. A site has been provided, but will not be approved until the plans of the proposed building have-been submitted to and approved by the Commissioners. It is proposed to supersede the existing building, not so much on account of the insufficiency of the accommodation afforded by it, as on the ground of its general unsuitableness for school purposes. Aid to the Waveney School was refused on the grounds that the pupils were largely withdrawn from other schools, that sufficient school accommodation already existed in Ballymena, and that applications for more extensive and suitable premises for three of the existing schools were pending. Moreover, the Waveney School premises were reported as unsuitable and insanitary.