§ MR. O'SHAUGHNESSY (Limerick, W.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether, having regard to the objection on moral and on educational grounds which the manager of Kilmeedy Primary School entertains to mixed schools, the Commissioners still refuse the grant-in-aid for separate new buildings there.
§ MR. WALTER LONGYes, Sir. Rule 194 of the Commissioners' Code provides that in cases of applications for building grants for adjoining boys' and girls' schools, grants for separate schools cannot be made unless there is an average attendance of at least fifty pupils in each school. The condition mentioned in the rule is not fulfilled in the case of Kilmeedy. The rule was made in the interests of education, and the Commissioners do not intend to depart from it in this case.
§ MR. O'SHAUGHNESSYI beg further to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he will lay upon the Table of the House the Minutes of the National Board of Education dealing with the application of the manager of the Kilmeedy National Schools, in the county of Limerick, for a grant-in-aid for the building of new schools there and the condition of amalgamation required by the Commissioners for the granting of same, the correspondence on the subject the Board had with the manager and the district inspector, and his reports.
§ MR. WALTER LONGThis case was not formally submitted to the Board, as the Commissioners had decided tint grants to build separate schools for boys and girls could not be made unless each had an attendance sufficient to maintain an assistant teacher. The inspectors' reports are confidential documents, but there is no objection to furnishing the hon. Member with a copy of the correspondence between the Commissioners and the manager, and I will have it sent to him accordingly.