Mr. WILLIAM REDMONDasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether it is to be understood that the letter of the 1882W manager of the national school at Parteen protesting against the application of Rule 127 (b) to that school was read and considered at a meeting of the Commissioners of National Education; whether it was admitted in the special report made on the case by the inspector that the facts were accurately stated by the manager; and whether the Commissioners then decided that a school in which there was but one mistress for pupils of all grades, with no equipment, nor even seats for infants, was one in which there was sufficient accommodation of a satisfactory kind for infant boys, and the teaching of infants was efficient; if so, will he give the date of that meeting of the Commissioners, and state the exact terms of any minute which records their ruling on this case?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe inspector does not appear to have disputed the accuracy of the manager's statement, but ho expressed the opinion that the Parteen girls' school fulfilled all the conditions laid down in the Commissioners' Rules for a suitable school within the meaning of Rule 127 (b)— a suitable school being defined in a note to the rule' as one in which there is adequate accommodation of a satisfactory kind, in which the teaching of infants is efficient, and in which the teaching staff is of the same religious denomination as in the neighbouring boys' school. The Commissioners inform me that the case was dealt with officially in accordance with their published rules, and that the manager was advised, under their authority, in the sense of the inspector's report.