Captain CRAIGasked the Chief Secretary whether the Memorandum issued by the Commissioners of National Education dealing with the grant of a moiety of the cost of heating and cleansing Irish national schools restricts the grant to the whitewashing or otherwise cleansing of the exterior of the schoolhouses and the emptying and cleansing of the pits of the outhouses; and whether he will have the conditions so amended as to cover the cleansing of the walls and disinfecting the floors, desks, and benches in the interior of the schools?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe provisions of the Memorandum are as stated. The Commissioners of National Education did not consider that the sum of £21,000 would be sufficient to meet a moiety of the cost of cleaning and whitewashing the inside of the schoolrooms as well as the outside. The suggestion that the rule should be extended so as to include both has also been made by the Catholic Clerical Managers' Association, and I have asked the Commissioners to consider it, but I have not yet received their observations. When I do I will communicate with the hon. and gallant Gentleman.
Captain CRAIGI would ask the right hon. Gentleman to bear in mind that in many cases the exterior fabric of the national schools is in perfect order, and that no further expenditure is necessary upon it, but that the interior requires constant cleaning?
§ Mr. BIRRELLYes. I think that is one of the points I will call attention to.