§ MR. LIDDELL (Down, W.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that the ratepayers in the township of Gilford, county Down, for years past, besides having to pay their share of the rates for the union of Banbridge, from which the rural school attendance officer 393 is paid his salary, have had to pay a special addition to the town rates for the purpose of paying a town school attendance officer, and that notwithstanding that the said ratepayers have been paying two different rates to two different men for doing the same work neither of these school attendance officers has done anything in the matter of looking after the attendance of children within the township for over eight months; and whether he will take steps to secure that in future these ratepayers shall be responsible for rates to pay only one officer, whether urban or rural, and that that officer shall attend to his business better than such business has been attended to in the past.
* MR. BRYCEThe Local Government Board understand that the facts are substantially as stated in the first part of the Question. The difficulty has arisen owing to an over-lapping of areas under the Irish Education Act, 1892, and a remedy could only be provided by legislation. I am, however, informed that for the past nine months the Gilford Town Commissioners have ceased to employ a school attendance officer, and the difficulty has therefore been obviated for the time being. The question as to the performance of his duties by the school attendance officer of the Banbridge rural district is one for the District Council to deal with.