§ MR. J. MACVEAGHTo ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant 1464 of Ireland whether he is aware that, by the operation of the rules of the National Board which came into force in 1900, most first-class teachers in charge of schools with an average of seventy or over have benefited to the extent of £24 a year, inasmuch as they had reached their maximum salary under the old rules and are eligible for increments under the new; whether he is aware that a teacher appointed for the first time since 1900 to a similar school is in receipt of a salary at least £50 per year less than that to which he would have been entitled under the old rules; and, if so, whether he will differentiate between those two classes of teachers in allocating the Supplementary Estimate for Irish primary education.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The Commissioners of National Education inform me that first-class teachers and most other teachers who were in the service prior to 1900 have benefited by the new scale of incomes introduced in that year, but the amount of the benefit has varied with the circumstances of each teacher. The income of a teacher appointed under the old rules depended on a variety of incidental circumstances, but under the existing rules most of these circumstances are absent and incomes are less liable to fluctuation. It would, in the Commissioners' opinion, be impossible to make any comparison, which would be of general application, between the incomes of any class of teachers under the new and old regulations. It is not intended to differentiate between the two classes of teachers mentioned in allocating the supplementary grant.