§ Mr. SLOANasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland if he can state the amount of building grants received during the year 1908 for national schools by the following denominations, Roman Catholic, Church of Ireland, Presbyterian, and Methodist; and if there be any disproportion will he explain why?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Commissioners of National Education inform me that the total amount of the grants sanctioned by them during the year 1908 towards the erection of new vested national schoolhouses was £121,195. Sub-divided according to the religious denominations of the applicants for the new schools the amounts of the grants were as follows:—1246W
Roman Catholic applicants £105,048 Protestant Episcopalian appli- cants
5,032 Presbyterian applicants 7,982 Methodist applicants 1,938 Other Protestant applicants 1,195 The large amount of grants made to Roman Catholic applicants as compared with the total amount made to Protestant applicants is due to the fact that a larger number of applications was received from Roman Catholic managers of national schools, many of these being in respect of schools with large attendances of pupils for grants to replace existing unsuitable schoolhouses.