§ Mr. JOHN O'CONNORasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland how many national schools there are in each junior inspector's district in the counties of Waterford, Cork, Kerry, Clare, Galway, Mayo, Sligo, and Donegal, in which the pupils or any number of the pupils speak Irish, or which are situated in districts in which Irish is spoken by the adult population, and which will also show in how many of these schools the teachers are competent to give instruction through the medium of Irish; in how many of these schools instruction is given through the medium of Irish; in how many schools in such Irish-speaking or semi-Irish-speaking districts Irish is taught as an extra subject; and in how many schools in such Irish-speaking or semi-Irish-speaking districts Irish is neither used as a medium of instruction nor taught as an extra subject?
§ Mr. BIRRELLI regret that I am unable to authorise the considerable expenditure of time and money involved in the preparation of the Return asked for at the present juncture, when the staff of the Board of National Education is depleted owing to the absence of a number of its members on military service.
§ Mr. O'CONNORalso asked the number of King's scholars who passed the 545W entrance examination in Irish for the Marlborough Street, Kildare Street, and St. Patrick's Training Colleges, Dublin, Carysfort Training College, Blackrock, and the Limerick, Waterford and Belfast Training Colleges, respectively, in each of the following years: 1910, 1911, 1912, 1913 and 1914; the number of students who passed the leaving examinations in each of these colleges in the years named; and the number of such students who received certificates of competency to teach Irish?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThere is no entrance examination in Irish for any of the training colleges. Irish may, however, be taken as an optional or alternative subject at the King's Scholarship Examination by candidates for admission to the various training colleges, and the number of King's scholars who passed in Irish in this way, in the years 1910 to 1914, is shown in the first of the following tables. The information asked for in the second and third parts of the question is given in Tables II. and III.:—
TABLE I. Training College. 1910. 1911. 1912. 1913. 1914. Marlboro' Street, Dublin … 14 32 7 8 13 St. Patrick's, Dublin … 42 54 54 46 51 Our Lady of Mercy, Blackrock … 36 75 51 76 70 Church of Ireland, Dublin … Nil. Nil. Nil. Nil. Nil. De La Salle, Waterford … 55 84 59 71 59 St. Mary's, Belfast … 26 33 24 34 35 Mary Immaculate, Limerick … 28 27 40 37 47 TABLE II. Marlboro' Street, Dublin … 185 105 163 98 128 St. Patrick's, Dublin … 83 71 80 70 71 Our Lady of Mercy, Blackrock … 84 110 86 107 87 Church of Ireland, Dublin … 72 56 71 52 67 De La Salle, Waterford … 92 98 89 95 75 St. Mary's, Belfast … 48 50 47 48 48 Mary Immaculate, Limerick … 50 47 53 45 54 TABLE III. Marlboro' Street, Dublin … 4 3 7 9 Nil. St. Patrick's, Dublin … 12 17 15 22 11 Our Lady of Mercy, Blackrock … 3 7 15 22 17 Church of Ireland, Dublin … Nil. Nil. Nil. Nil. Nil. De La Salle, Waterford … 3 28 33 32 19 St. Mary's, Belfast … 8 21 20 19 10 Mary Immaculate, Limerick … 2 7 12 7 9