asked the Minister for Education if a number of State scholarships in the faculties of arts, science and commerce and value for £150 per annum and tenable at University College, Galway, were awarded on the results of the leaving certificate examination for students qualified to take all lectures and sit for all examinations through the medium of the Irish language, and if he can state whether any scholarships have been awarded in pursuance of the above in the faculty of engineering, and involving a departure from the conditions published in respect thereof.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - University Scholarships.
Under a scheme introduced in 1947, a number of scholarships, each of the value stated, are awarded annually on the results of the leaving certificate examination to enable students to pursue university courses through the medium of Irish. As it is an essential condition of the scheme that a student, to whom a scholarship is awarded, must pursue his entire university course through Irish, the scholarships are, at present, tenable only in the faculties of arts, commerce and science of University College, Galway, as facilities for full courses through Irish are not available there in any of the other university faculties nor in any other of the colleges. A scholarship was not, accordingly, awarded to any student for the purpose of following a course in engineering.
At the end of 1947-48 academic year, however, it came to the notice of the Department that a student who held one of these scholarships in the faculty of science and who had completed a full year's course through Irish in that faculty had also passed the first university examination in engineering. A reasonable explanation as to the circumstances in which the student had taken the examination in engineering having been received from the university authorities, together with an undertaking that the student in question would, for the further potential duration of the scholarship, devote himself exclusively to his course in science through Irish, it was decided to renew his scholarship. I may add that, in connection with this matter, the university authorities undertook to ensure that in future scholarship holders under the scheme would be registered only in faculties in which full courses, leading to degree, are available through Irish.