§ MR. JAMES CAMPBELL (Dublin University)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he can state the reasons which induced the National Board of Education to withdraw the usual grants from the Donaghmore Glebe national school on the 31st March 1906, and to since refuse to restore these grants, although the average attendance of children was such as to entitle the school to a continuance of them; can he state the number of schools from which these grants have been withdrawn within the last twelve months; and how many of them were schools in connection with the Church of Ireland.
MR. BRYCEThe Commissioners of National Education inform me that upon the resignation of the principal teacher of the Donaghmore Glebe national school it became necessary under the terms of Rule 179 to consider the general question of the educational facilities afforded to pupils of the district within reasonable distance of their homes. In view of the number of schools under Protestant management in operation and their proximity to the residences of the pupils of the Donaghmore Glebe school, the Commissioners considered that there was no necessity for the further continuance of that school and that there would be no justification for the expenditure of public funds upon its maintenance. The Commissioners, accordingly, decided to withdraw grants from the 30th June 1906, and they have declined to reverse this decision. The average daily attendance has not reached the minimum required under the rules dealing with the point at issue, for any quarter during the present year. The number of schools from which giants have been withdrawn within the past twelve 57 months was seventy-six, of which twenty-one were schools under the management of members of the Irish Church.