§ Sir WALTER NUGENTasked the Chief Secretary whether he is aware that the sum of £11 19s. 8d. has been withheld from Mrs. O'Connell, principal teacher of Streamstown girls' school, county Westmeath, for non-compliance with the provisions of Rule 92 (j) of the Commissioners of National Education; can he state in accordance with what rule of the Commissioners' code has this deduction been made and on what principle the amount of the deduction has been calculated; whether representations have been made to the Commissioners by and on behalf of Mrs. O'Connell to the effect that it was found impossible to comply with the provisions of the rule, as efforts to provide a qualified substitute by advertisement and other means proved unavailing; and whether, if the Commissioners are satisfied that this teacher did all that was possible under the 921W circumstances to comply with the provisions of the rule and failed to do so through no fault of her own, they will refund that portion of her salary which has been withheld from her?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe answer to the first paragraph of the question is in the affirmative. Under Rule 183, the Commissioners of National Education reserve to themselves in every case the right to determine whether the payment of salaries, or the grant of any other aid, should be made in whole or in part, or be altogether withheld. Mrs. O'Connell was absent from 16th February to 15th March, during which no substitute for her was employed, nor was this period, or any portion of the time from 16th February to 31st March, reckoned as vacation. Under the terms of Rule 92 (j) the teacher should have absented herself from her school for three months from 16th February, and, in view of her failure to comply with this rule, salary and other grants for the period from 16th February to 31st March were disallowed from the payments made for the quarter ended 31st March, 1912. It has been represented to the Commissioners that Mrs. O'Connell advertised twice for a substitute without success, but in the absence of any evidence as to the remuneration offered, the qualifications required, or the newspapers and journals in which the advertisement appeared, the Commissioners are unable to say whether all that was possible in the circumstances was done to comply with the provisions of the Rule. The Commissioners are, therefore, not prepared to pay the salary which has been withheld from Mrs. O'Connell.