§ MR. NANNETTI (Dublin, College Green)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that, under the Teachers' Residences Act, 1875, principal teachers are entitled to have free residences built for them and that assistant teachers have no such privilege; whether he is 940 aware that an assistant is not entitled, even under the most favourable circumstances, to more than thirty-five sixtieths of the residual capitation grant received by the principal, while in the majority of cases the principals receive from five to twenty times as much of this grant as their assistants receive; is this capitation grant altogether outside grade salaries; and whether any steps will be taken to improve the position of the assistant teachers.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The Act in question, which authorises the Board of Works to make loans in such cases as they may deem expedient for the purpose of providing residences for national school teachers, makes no distinction between principal and assistant teachers. As regards the residual capitation grant it would appear, from the information supplied to me by the Commissioners of National Education, that an assistant teacher cannot in any case receive more than thirty-five sixtieths of the amount received by the principal, but it is not correct to say that in the majority of cases the principals receive from five to twenty times as much as the assistants. This capitation grant is altogether outside grade salaries. The Commissioners do not propose to make any change in the existing sale of payment.