§ Mr. MacVEAGHasked whether the withdrawing of the grant for the Brague School, Annaclone, county Down, will be reconsidered by the National Board; whether the remonstrance sent to the Board was signed by eleven clergymen of different denominations and by nearly all the leading people in the district; whether the Board is aware that the school is over two miles distant from the four nearest schools, and that the average attendance was in excess of the number required for recognition; and whether the local medical officer has made representations in favour of the restoration of the grant?
§ Mr. BIRRELLI would refer the hon. Member to my reply to a similar question asked on the 25th November last by the hon. Member for West Down.
Mr. WILLIAM ARCHER REDMONDasked the Chief Secretary whether his attention has been called to an application made by the Very Rev. Canon M'Cartan, P.P., six years ago to the Commissioners of National Education of Ireland for a grant to erect schools at Lisboy, in the parish of Donoghmore, county Tyrone; whether he is aware that the grant was sanctioned, the site procured, and the lease made and passed by the solicitor to the National Board; and whether, in view of all these facts, he will take steps to have this case treated as urgent, and so dealt with immediately by the Treasury?
§ Mr. BIRRELLApplication for a grant towards the erection of a schoolhouse in this neighbourhood was made in June, 1905, but, owing to difficulties connected with the title, the site then offered was abandoned, and a second application in respect of a new site was made in June, 1908. No grant has yet been sanctioned, but the Commissioners of National Education have provisionally approved of the erection of the proposed new house, and have promised a grant as soon as funds shall be available. The solicitor to the Commissioners is satisfied as to the title, and the Board of Public Works have passed the site. The case is included in the list of applications requiring immediate attention, which was submitted to the Treasury in December last, but the Commissioners have not indicated that the case is more urgent than many others, and I cannot, therefore, take any special steps with regard to it.