§ MR. JOHN REDMONDTo ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether the Government propose to give a further endowment to the Queen's College Belfast; whether the attitude of previous Governments has been that any additional endowments for the Queen's College, Belfast, must be part of a general settlement of the Irish University question; what the reason is for departing from this attitude; and whether, before doing so, there has been any consultation with the representatives of Ireland or with those specially interested in the question of university education in Ireland.
(Answered by Mr. McKenna). It is not intended to give a further endowment to
† See (4) Debates, cxxxi, 1305, et seq.609 Queen's College, Belfast, or to depart from the policy which has been pursued by previous Governments with regard to the Queen's Colleges generally. Expenditure on the buildings of the colleges, whether for maintenance or new works, has always been outside the endowment properly so called, which consists of £7,000 per annum charged on the Consolidated Fund for each college and £1,600 voted annually by Parliament. The grant of £5,400, which has been placed on the Estimates for the ensuing year in aid of the building requirements of the Belfast College is conditional on an equal sum being devoted to the same purpose from contributions raised locally, and does not differ in principle from other grants which have been made in the past for analogous objects.