asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many voluntary and maintained primary and secondary schools there are in each board area; and how much money was paid out of Government funds to each school for salaries, maintenance and new buildings in the past five years.
The number of voluntary—including maintained—primary and secondary schools in each board area over the last five years is as follows.
| BELFAST | ||
| Primary | Secondary | |
| 1975 | 60 | 33 |
| 1976 | 60 | 33 |
| 1977 | 59 | 33 |
| 1978 | 56 | 32 |
| 1979 | 56 | 32 |
| WESTERN | ||
| Primary | Secondary | |
| 1975 | 158 | 34 |
| 1976 | 153 | 35 |
| 1977 | 147 | 34 |
| 1978 | 143 | 34 |
| 1979 | 136 | 34 |
| NORTH EASTERN | ||
| Primary | Secondary | |
| 1975 | 94 | 29 |
| 1976 | 93 | 29 |
| 1977 | 91 | 29 |
| 1978 | 91 | 30 |
| 1979 | 91 | 29 |
| SOUTH EASTERN | ||
| Primary | Secondary | |
| 1975 | 60 | 19 |
| 1976 | 60 | 19 |
| 1977 | 59 | 19 |
| 1978 | 58 | 19 |
| 1979 | 58 | 19 |
| SOUTHERN | ||
| Primary | Secondary | |
| 1975 | 164 | 34 |
| 1976 | 161 | 34 |
| 1977 | 159 | 34 |
| 1978 | 159 | 34 |
| 1979 | 159 | 34 |
The further information requested dealing with specified costs of each individual school over the past five years would require a massive clerical analysis of records in the Department in respect of teachers' salaries, grants to grammar schools and building grants, and in the area boards in respect of maintenance costs. It is in fact doubtful whether maintenance cost records held by boards would be capable of analysis to the level of individual schools because of the centralisation of items such as fuel contracts.