§ Mr. DORISasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland if he can state whether, by Rule 105 (a) of the Commissioners of National Education, teachers are eligible for promotion after remaining three years on the maxiumum of their grade; whether teachers affected by paper promotion arc, in some cases, from four to six years on the maximum of their former grade without receiving any additions to their salaries, although the Commissioners acknowledged that they are entitled to increases; whether Rule 108 (b) of the Commissioners states that awards of continued good service salary are made triennially to the teachers when the work shows merit; whether this rule also has been violated in the cases of the paper promotion teachers; and, considering that these rules were sanctioned by the Treasury in 1900, and that the teachers are denied their rights under them, if ha will recommend the immediate payment to these teachers of the arrears of their grade salaries from the dates of their 978W promotions, pending a revision of the present rules?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Commissioners of National Education inform me that teachers in the third, second, and second division of first grades who are three years on the maximum income of their grades respectively are eligible, so far as service is concerned, for promotion to higher grades, but they may not be promoted unless other conditions are fulfilled, and hence many teachers are more than three years on the maximum incomes of their grades. Some men teachers promoted to the second and first divisions of first grade have not yet received the income of their new grades, nor can they receive such income until vacancies occur in the grades to which they have been promoted. Awards of increment are made under Rule 108 (b), as stated, but these increments of good service salary can only be granted to teachers already in receipt of their grade salaries for at least three years. With regard to the last paragraph of the question, I would refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the question on this subject asked by the hon. Member for Mid-Armagh on the 9th November.