MR. GIN NELL (Westmeath, N.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he is aware that the annual capitation grant, which forms part of the remuneration of national teachers, due in respect of one year is not paid until the April of the following year, and that this delay in payment is an inconvenience to the teachers; and, seeing that this delay is avoidable, will he take steps to have payment made at the earliest possible date.
(Answered by Mr. Bryce.) The residue of the school grant under the Irish Education Act of 1892 for each calendar year is paid as a capitation grant early in April of the following year. It was found necessary to adopt this course in 1900–1, when the new system of consolidated salaries came into force, and the same course has since been followed. An arrangement, however, has now been made, with the approval of the Treasury, by which about a third of the residual grant in question for the past year will be paid during the current financial year, that is to say, during the present month. I am unable, at present, to make any statement as to the possibility of expediting these payments in future years, but the importance of the Question will not be lost sight of.