§ Mr. DEVLINasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland how many applications the Commissioners of National Education have before them for grants for new schools; how long have some of these applications been before the Commissioners; whether, in many instances, the old school buildings have been condemned again and again as utterly unfit for school purposes and dangerous to the health of the school children; whether, in many cases, the Commissioners have intimated that, owing to want of money, no grant can be given now or perhaps for years; whether there is any ground for the statement that the Commissioners have not got sufficient money for this purpose; and, if there is no ground for the statement, whether some way will be found to bring official pressure to bear on the Commissioners to compel them to grant the sums necessary?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Comissioners of National Education have before them 236 applications for grants towards the erection of school-houses to replace old and unsuitable buildings, many of which have been condemned by the Board's inspectors. Some of these applications have been before the Commissioners for years 1461W owing to legal or other difficulties, and in some instances although the preliminaries have been completed action has been suspended for the present, owing to the available funds having been allocated to other cases. The Treasury have undertaken to provide in the Parliamentary Estimates for the present and two following financial years a sum of £40,000 a year, besides re-voting the unexpended balances of the three previous years. The amount sanctioned for those three years was £120,000, of which some £86,000 has been expended, leaving a balance of £34,000. There will thus be a total of £154,000 available during the next three years, but the Commissioners have already sanctioned grants which will absorb the whole of this sum. The question of providing further sums in order to deal with urgent cases is at present the subject of correspondence between the Irish Governmnt and the Treasury.