To ask the Minister for Education if it is proposed to discontinue the Marlborough Training College this year; if so, will he state what provision has been made for the students who would ordinarily be called to this College, and can he say if the effect of such arrangements will be that the students who took first division at the Scholarship Examination may be excluded from Carysfort Training College, while students who applied to Marlborough College, and who took only second Division, have been or will be summoned to training.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS.
To ask the Minister for Defence whether his attention has been called to the following statements in an editorial in the "Irish Times" of September 21st, viz.: "(1) It appears, however, that a sort of censorship, which we know not whether to describe as military or civil, still exists; (2) The newspapers have been ordered on several occasions during the past fortnight to omit passages from reports which their staffs had prepared in the ordinary way; (3) One of these reports concerned the alleged treatment of Republican prisoners; (4) Another contained the evidence and verdict at an inquest in Dublin"; whether there is any truth in the allegations marked (1), (2), (3), (4); if so, by whom, with what authority, and for what purpose were these orders given; and what, in fact, were the statements suppressed?
May I ask the Deputies to postpone those questions?
Until?
Until either to-morrow or this evening, when the Ministers may have answers for them. I regret they are not here. In one case I know the Minister is working hard; he has been on a long journey and on big inspections; and, in the other case, there has been a bereavement in the family.
In the case of Question No. 1, the Minister for Education was anxious to answer it yesterday, but it was not on the paper.
Yes, that is so.
I am sorry I did not hear the observations made by the President. There is a question standing in my name, and I agreed to have it postponed yesterday. It is a question of importance with reference to the censorship. None of us knows whether any military censorship is still in existence, or whether it is not.
What I said was that the Minister for Defence has been very busily engaged for some days past, and I think he must have overlooked the fact that this question was on, or he may have been engaged on some business, and I rose to excuse his absence. If the Deputy wishes I will see about getting into communication with the Minister for Defence, and see if he will be here at 5 o'clock this evening; or if you wish. to postpone it until to-morrow. In the other case, I explained that the Minister for Education was not in to-day. He was in yesterday. I believe he was in a position to answer the question yesterday.
I quite understand that the Minister for Defence is busily engaged, and I would be agreeable to postpone it until to-morrow, but even if he is engaged, surely it is possible for the Department of the Ministry of Defence to supply an answer to it, which could be read out by another Minister.
Yes. I will undertake to get these questions answered.
subsequently replied to the question addressed to him as follows: —It is proposed to discontinue the Teachers' Training College at Marlboro' Street. The names of the applicants for admission to this College have been placed on the lists for one or other of the Training Colleges as far as possible in accordance with the candidate's own choice, and in order of merit, as if they had originally been candidates for that College. It will not be an effect of this arrangement that students who were placed in the Second Division at the Easter Examination will be admitted to Carysfort Training College, to the exclusion of those who were placed in First Division.