§ MR. MOOREI beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland if the fees earned in respect of cookery instruction in the national schools are to be received by the managers, with authority to deduct therefrom the cost of the apparatus; and, having regard 697 to the fact that the salaries of junior assistants at £24 and senior assistants at £44 leave a slender margin, will he see that the cost of financing this subject is not cast on the teachers' salaries.
§ MR. BIRRELLThe Commissioners of National Education inform me that cookery instruction is given as part of the ordinary school programme, and that the salaries awarded to teachers are for all the work done by them during ordinary school hours. The Commissioners, however, recognising that instruction in cookery cannot effectively be given without practical demonstrations involving the use of materials and apparatus, make a grant of 5s. for each girl enrolled in the cookery class under specified conditions. This grant is made to the manager who is empowered to pay to the staff the balance, if any, which may remain after defraying any necessary incidental expenditure. It is not the wish of the Commissioners that any portion of the cost of giving cookery instruction should fall upon the school staff; on the contrary, it is their intention that the teachers should profit to the extent of the unexpended balance of the fees awarded for the instruction.
§ In reply to a further Question by Mr. Moore,
§ MR. BIRRELLpromised to look further into this matter, as he was desirous that the slender income of the teacher should be in no way infringed upon by providing apparatus.