§ MR. SWIFT MACNEILL (Donegal, S.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether, having regard to the fact that upwards of seven years ago, at the instance of the late Reverend Peter Kelly, P. P., the manager of the national school, Gortnacart, county Donegal, a grant was sanctioned for the building of a new schoolhouse, but that the Commissioners, owing to want of money, induced Father Kelly to await the settlement of the question of the plans and estimates for schoolhouses, now that the Treasury has consented to make a grant of £40,000 for three years for the purpose of repairing and building schools, steps will be taken to secure that the building of a new schoolhouse at Gortnacart, owing to the priority and urgency of the claim, and the report of every inspector of the unsatisfactory and insanitary condition of the present temporary schoolhouse, be forthwith undertaken and speedily brought to completion.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The Commissioners of National Education are desirous that steps should at once be taken to provide new premises for the Gortnacart national school; and, as the new standard plans and specifications for national school buildings, though agreed upon in principle, will not be ready for some time, the Commissioners propose to invite the manager to submit special plans in this case.