§ MR. THOMAS O'DONNELLI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland on what basis is the amount of State grants given for primary education in 1907 to England, Scotland, and Ireland calculated; what is the amount per head of the population given in each of the three countries in the year 1907;what is the proportion existing between the grants for the three countries for the same year; and whether, seeing that Ireland is a poor country, where education has long been neglected, he will consider the necessity of increasing the grant next year to the amount given to Scotland.
§ MR. RUNCIMANI can give no better answer as to the basis of the several grants than to refer to the titles of the various subheads of the three estimates. As regards the rest of the Question, I may point out that the preparation of a Return giving all the figures is a matter of immense labour, as will be seen from the Return prepared on the Motion of the hon. Member last year (House of Commons Paper 305 of 1906), which gave comparative figures for the year 1904–5, and I do not consider that the additional value of a Return substituting the figures for 1907–8 would justify my asking the Departments concerned to make the calculations afresh. I can see no reason for increasing the total grant for Ireland merely on the ground that the amount is less than that received by Scotland, where the number of children attending school is very much larger.