§ Mr. CHARLES CRAIGasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland what was the initial salary paid to the two teachers who completed a two years' course of training in 1900 and were appointed to schools with averages varying from thirty to fifty, and were awarded a higher rate of salary than £56 per annum; whether, if any of the twenty-seven teachers who completed a two years' course the same year and were appointed to similar schools would produce documentary evidence that they had a promise of a school prior to their entrance to a training college, the Commissioners of National Education would now favourably consider their claims; and whether he will state what exceptional circumstances entitled those two teachers to special consideration?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Commissioners of National Education inform me that the initial salary paid to the two teachers referred to was £75 and £77. In the case of these two teachers the strict application of the rules in force in 1901–2 would, in the1486W judgment of the Commissioners, have operated inequitably, and they were, under the powers then possessed by the Board, specially considered. The production of the documentary evidence referred to would not warrant further consideration of the cases of the twenty-seven other teachers mentioned in the question.