§ Mr. WILLIAM O'BRIENasked how many junior assistant mistresses under the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland, who passed the King's scholarship examination in 1910, and the attendance in whose schools have averaged fifty pupils daily, have been deprived of assistants' salaries owing to the requirements of the Commissioners' rules; and how much money has been returned to the Treasury as unexpended balances by the Commissioners during the years 1909, 1910, and 1911, while junior assistant mistresses entitled by their scholarships and the school attendance to the salaries of assistant teachers have been compelled to teach on the allowance of £25 per annum?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Commissioners of National Education inform me that junior assistant mistresses who have given three years' satisfactory service and who pass the King's Scholarship examination in the 1st or 2nd Division are recognised and paid as full assistants if appointed as such by the managers, provided there is an average daily attendance of fifty pupils in their schools. There are nineteen junior assistant mistresses who have not yet given three years satisfactory service, and three who did not pass in the 1st or 2nd Division in 1910 who are otherwise-eligible for advancement to the position of full assistants. With regard to the last paragraph of the question, I would refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the similar question of the hon. Member "or South Cork on 16th May last.