asked the Minister for Health if, having regard to the hardship resulting from the discontinuation of the infectious disease allowance in cases of infantile paralysis where disease has ceased to be progressive and has resulted in physical incapacity, he will consider favourably introducing proposals for legislation to amend the Health Act, 1947, so as to permit of the allowance being continued, or to make such alternative provision as may be deemed desirable in those cases.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Infantile Paralysis.
The provision in Part IV of the Health Act, 1947, for the payment of cash allowances to persons undergoing treatment for specified infectious diseases is administered as part of the health legislation for the protection of the community against the spread of infectious disease. The purpose of the cash allowances is to induce persons in necessitous circumstances who are found to be suffering from the specified infectious diseases to undergo early treatment by relieving them of anxiety as to the maintenance of themselves and their dependents while they are receiving treatment. The grant of allowances to persons incapacitated by residual irremediable paralysis resulting from infantile paralysis is outside the scope of the Infectious Diseases Code. The feasibility of making some provision for such cases in new legislation is being examined in my Department.