§ Mr. DEVLINasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether he is aware that, according to the rules of the Birrell Grant of 1914, the minimum salary for men was fixed at £140 per annum; whether one of the rules of the equivalent Grant last year meant that a very large number of teachers who had been in receipt of £140 would get an additional £20, bringing their salaries to £160 per annum; whether the vast majority of intermediate teachers in Ire land have received no war bonus; and whether he will have the rules of the Grant so framed that a portion of the increase in the Grant be devoted to a badly-needed increase in teachers' salaries, so as to give them a living wage?
§ Mr. MACPHERSONThe minimum salary given in the Schedule to the Teachers' Salaries Grant (£40,000) Rules,1915, for male teachers for whom board and lodgings are not provided is £140 a year. Under the rates for the application852W for the additional Parliamentary Grant the Grants paid to schools depend upon the employment by the schools of a certain number of recognised teachers in receipt of a salary of at least £20 per annum more than the minimum stated in the Schedule to the Teachers' Salaries Grant Rules, 1915. Since the additional Parliamentary Grant of £50,000 was voted a considerable number of teachers have received the additional salaries. As the teachers are paid by the school authorities—not by the Intermediate Education Board—they hare no information as to the number of those teachers, if any, who have received a war bonus.