§ MR. DILLON (Mayo, E.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether his attention has been drawn to the fact that the information which he has declined to give to the House of Commons in reference to the recent proceedings of the Board of intermediate Education in Ireland has been communicated to a Dublin newspaper, together with an announcement that the Board has decided by a large majority to disregard the recent unanimous decision of the House of Commons in reference to its rules; and whether he will not, in view of these facts, make a full statement of all the facts in relation to the action of the Board in this matter.
(Answered by Mr. Bryce.) Until I saw the hon. Member's Question I did not know that any statement of the nature indicated had appeared in a Dublin newspaper, nor do I know what the statement was. The fact, however, is that the Board have, since I last answered a Question on this subject, informed the Irish Government that they find it impossible to prepare a new set of rules in time to enable them to be approved by the Lord-Lieutenant and lie forty days on the Table of both Houses before August; and that, as the gravest inconvenience would be caused to the numerous schools which 149 prepare pupils for the Board's examinations if the programme of those examinations were not announced by the month of August, they find that the only course open to them is to continue the existing programme, viz., that in force for 1906. They accordingly propose to submit to the Lord-Lieutenant for his approval the rules for 1906. This is a purely temporary expedient, rendered necessary, in the opinion of the Board, by the shortness of the time available.