I move:—
Go ndeontar suim ná raghaidh thar £320,158 chun slánuithe na suime is gá chun íoctha an Mhuirir a thiocfidh chun bheith iníoctha i rith na bliana dar críoch an 31adh lá de Mhárta, 1931, chun Tuarastail agus Costaisí Oifig an Aire Rialtais Aitiúla agus Sláinte Puiblí, maraon le Deontaisí agus Costaisí eile a bhaineann le Tógáil Tithe, Deontaisí d'Udaráis Aitiúla agus Ildeontaisí i gCabhair, agus Costaisí Oifig Chigire na nOspideul Meabhar-Ghalar.
That a sum not exceeding £320,158 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1931, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Office of the Minister for Local Government and Public Health, including Grants and other expenses in connection with Housing, Grants to Local Government Authorities and Sundry Grants-in-Aid, and the Expenses of the Office of the Inspector of Mental Hospitals.
The total amount of this Estimate is £482,158 compared with last year's Estimate of £463,603, showing a net increase of £18,555. In considering the causes for this increase special attention must be directed to two of the most important sub-heads. In the first place, the treatment of tuberculosis shows an increase of £32,750, but if Deputies will turn to page 146 of the Estimates they will recognise there as a new feature, the inclusion of an amount of £27,750, a figure with which they will have been familiar during the passing of the recent National Health Insurance Act. It consists of the compensation to local authorities given because of the withdrawal of moneys previously available under the National Health Insurance Act of 1911 for sanatorium benefit. It will be noted that this sum would of itself exceed the net increase in the Estimates by £9,195. This sum of £27,750 is in effect a book-keeping transaction between the Estimates for the National Health Insurance Commission and the Estimates you have at present before you. The expenses of medical certification have this year disappeared from the Estimate of the National Health Insurance Commission which shows a net decrease of £29,997. The only other sub-heads to which it is proper to refer in a preliminary review of the difference between this year's and last year's Estimate are the sub-heads concerning housing which, taken together, show a reduction on the previous year of £22,492.
While I will refer more fully to housing at a later stage in my remarks it is well to remember that no direct inference can validly be drawn between the expenditure of one particular year and another, as much may depend on a particularly large sum belonging to some particular scheme falling for payment in one or other year. The proper method of examining housing developments is to take cognisance of the moneys provided in the various Housing Acts since our first Housing Act in 1924. The outstanding feature of interest in these Estimates is that they testify on the face of them to the continued progress in matters concerning the health of the community; the care of mothers and infants; the ascertainment and prevention of physical defects in school children; the feeding of school children; the care of the blind and the treatment of tuberculosis. I feel that those Deputies who give any special attention to these matters will afford a very ungrudging acquiescence with the increased amounts now provided. As I remarked when submitting the Estimates on a former occasion, every penny of this money will bring its certain return many times over in the prevention of needless suffering and in the avoidance of the many kinds of impairment which become chronic in adult life because of neglect, inattention or ignorance during child-birth and infancy.
I would like, however, to give this assurance, that the greatest possible care is taken to ensure that all this money is legally and prudently administered. The accounts of local authorities are rigidly examined by my own audit staff, and the amounts passing from this Vote as recoupment to local authorities are likewise most vigilantly scrutinised. In great part this expenditure is under the experienced supervision of county medical officers of health. When dealing with last year's Estimates I was able to report that county medical officers were then working in Cork, Carlow, Kildare, Louth, Offaly and Westmeath. I am now pleased to be able to state that appointments have been made or are imminent in Donegal, Galway, Meath, Wicklow, Cavan, Limerick, Monaghan and Roscommon. In some counties a considerable advance has already been made in the reorganisation of the public health services. In Cork County much attention has been devoted to school medical inspection, treatment of tuberculosis and inspection of midwives. A system of central meat inspection has also been initiated. In Kildare County the medical inspection of school children is being systematically carried out by the county medical officer of health and his assistant. Provision is being made for the segregation of advanced cases of tuberculosis in an institution provided locally, while the systematic inspection of midwives is being carried out under the supervision of the country medical officer by the public health nurses. In Louth County the work is proceeding on similar lines. In this county the striking effect of immunisation against diphtheria is noted in the report for 1929 of the county medical officer of health. The number of cases of diphtheria in Dundalk urban district for the year 1928 was returned as 84. The immunisation campaign conducted by Dr. Musgrave commenced in November of that year and 500 children were inoculated with three doses of toxoid anti-toxin before the end of December, 500 more in the spring of 1929, and another 500 in the autumn, making a total of 1,500 children protected against the disease in that year. The number of cases of diphtheria in Dundalk urban district for the year 1929 was recorded as only 38, a decrease of almost 55 per cent. on the preceding year. Immunisation schemes have also been initiated in the county borough and county of Cork. The schemes are popular and are largely availed of. From July to December, 1929, the number of children immunised in Cork County Borough was 1,600, and in Cork County 1,500. County medical officers of health and school medical officers are unanimous in paying tribute to the cordial co-operation of the clergy and school teachers.
The teachers are giving their services in connection with school inspection, calling attention to pupils needing special attention, and in some places helping to weigh the children and fill the school cards.
The Department has long been concerned as to a means of extending pathological aids for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease. I am glad to be in a position to announce that the Executive Committee of the Rockefeller Foundation to whom we are already much indebted for practical assistance have generously offered me a sum of £21.000 towards the construction and equipment of a diagnostic laboratory in Dublin. They will also contribute, as may be necessary, towards completing the training of any laboratory staff required. I have had some preliminary conversations with the Minister for Finance on the matter and am hopeful that the project will develop successfully without any burden of consequence on the public funds. It will be of very great assistance to the county medical officers of health, particularly in the neighbourhood of Dublin, when we have this diagnostic institution in full working order. It will be very necessary to have an institution like it when we come actually to put into operation the legislation that we propose introducing dealing with the question of pure milk supply.
Medical treatment of school children is in operation in the four county boroughs, in Clonmel, and in Counties Cork, Kildare, Louth, Offaly, and schemes are being formulated in the remaining counties where county medical officers of health have been appointed. The records for the past year indicate steady progress, although medical treatment falls short of the completeness that it is hoped to achieve. Generally speaking, it can be said that inspection revealed a high rate of decaying teeth, enlarged tonsils and adenoids and defective vision, while all forms of tubercular deformities and conditions of crippledom were fewer than anticipated. The commonest physical defect proved to be dental caries, which was found in over 55 per cent. of the total children examined.
The percentages in the particular districts are as follow:—Dublin County Borough, 65; Cork County Borough, 58; County Kildare, 54; County Louth, 51; County Cork, 26.7; and County Offaly, 60. That is the percentage of total children examined who were found to be suffering from dental caries. Enlarged tonsils and adenoids were found in 16 per cent. of the total children examined. Medical inspection revealed that 11 per cent. of the total number of children examined were in need of the services of an ophthalmic surgeon.
On the general question of child welfare, there has been an expansion in this service during the past year. Payments from the grant for the current year will amount to about £20,700. The infantile mortality for the year 1928 was the lowest recorded in this country for any year, with the exception of 1923. being at the rate of 68 per 1,000 births. For the urban areas, the rate was 90.75 per 1,000 births, and for the rural areas 55.75 per 1,000 births. For the preceding year, the rates were, for the Free State, 71 per 1,000 births; for urban areas, 98.98 per 1,000 births; for rural areas, 56.08 per 1,000 births. The average rate for the decennial period 1918-1927 was 73 per 1,000 births. In Dublin County Borough, the rate of mortality among infants was 102 per 1,000 births, or 21 less than in 1927, and 22 less than the average rate for the quinquennial period 1923-1927, although in itself rather high.
During the last financial year School Meals Schemes were established in Drogheda, Letterkenny and Wicklow Urban Districts. Schemes are now in operation in 32 urban districts, and in three county boroughs. These areas represent over 75 per cent. of the total urban population of the country. In Dublin County Borough, meals were supplied in the financial year ending 31st March, 1929, to a daily average number of children of 6,725, at a total cost of £10,856.
On the subject of general administration, the county boards of health and public assistance have now been in operation for a number of years, and in order to enable them to get in proper perspective their general work and to assist them in dealing with the general administration of the work, which is pretty complex, we propose to hold a conference in July of this year, in Dublin, to which we have invited members of the county boards of health, officials, and others interested in the general work of the boards of health and public social services generally. The Conference will last a couple of days, and we hope by bringing the members together, by getting an exchange of ideas, that it will help them in the administration of their work and give them a unified outlook on their general problems. The subjects which we hope to discuss at this Conference will deal with the despatch of business at meetings of boards of health and public assistance; the county medical officer of health and his functions; the health of the school child; the improvement of county homes; general rural health problems; the welfare of children in the care of the public assistance authorities, and such other matters as between this and the Conference may be brought to our attention as matters that may be usefully discussed. I think it should be of great assistance in the general work of the boards of health.
I referred last year to the progress of rate collection. This was well maintained in the financial year that has just closed. In 1928-29, the percentage of warrants for that year collected within the year was 80.5, so that 19.5 per cent. of the total warrants was uncollected in March, 1929. At the end of the financial year, 1929-30, the percentage collected was 86.4, so that there was an improvement of about 6 per cent. in the collection, or the amount outstanding last year was only two-thirds of that outstanding the year before. This is rather satisfactory, but we feel that much greater improvement can still be effected if a general effort be made to collect the rates earlier in the year. Pressure is being brought to bear upon counties to get that done. It is desirable that it should be done, as in many counties the public services still continue to be financed to a pretty fair extent by means of overdrafts.
The amount of county overdrafts on the 31st March, 1930, was £137,000. This compares well with £172,000 for the year ended 31st March, 1929. One feature of the over-draft system was reflected in the tendency of local bodies to under-estimate their requirements and to continue to expend in excess of the amounts provided. However, the improvement is found to be satisfactory, and there is a general prospect in the way in which local bodies are addressing themselves to this matter of rate collection that the situation will improve, and improve rapidly, so that we may very shortly hope to get to the position that the total warrants will be collected by the end of the financial year.
The particular changes effected in housing policy during the present financial year were (1) the passing into law of the Housing Act, 1929; (2) the opening of the Local Loans Fund for the making of advances to urban authorities for the erection of houses under the Housing of the Working Classes Acts. Under the Housing Acts, 1924 to 1929, the amount of £1,350,000 was provided for the making of grants to private persons, to public utility societies, and to local authorities for the erection of houses. Of that entire sum £1,276,889 was allotted up to 1st April, as follows: to private persons, £831,016, representing 12,293 houses; to public utility societies, £84,985, representing 922 houses, and to local authorities £360,888, representing 4,615 houses. The balance un-allocated on 1st April was £73,110.
Of the 13,215 houses erected and being erected by private persons and public utility societies, 10,874 have been certified as completed: of the 4,615 houses approved for building by local authorities, 3,900, approximately, have been completed; of the 13,215 approved for erection by private persons and public utility societies, 9,151, or 69 per cent., are in rural areas. It may be of interest to show the counties in which the greater number were built. Cork County comes first with 1,147 houses, Mayo next with 1,134, Galway 844 houses, Dublin 773 houses, Kerry 706 houses. The counties in which the smaller number of houses have been built, working backwards, are: Carlow, which is the lowest, 6 houses; Kildare, 28; Offaly, 44; Waterford, 67; Kilkenny, 73, and Wicklow, 79. These figures will be of interest when we see that private persons, in rural areas in Mayo, built 1,134 during the last few years as against six in the County Carlow. In the county boroughs 1,997 houses are being built by private persons and public utility societies, of which 90 are being built in Cork County Borough, 1,658 in Dublin, 95 in Waterford and 154 in Limerick.
In the urban districts 1,409 houses are being built by private persons and public utility societies, and 166 houses are being built in towns with Town Commissioners. The total number of houses in respect of which grants have been allocated to private persons and public utility societies is 13,215, being an increase of 1,960 during the year ending 31st March, 1930. In all there are 27 public utility societies carrying out operations. As I say, advances from the Local Loans Fund have been made available during the year for the erection of houses by urban authorities. These are repayable over a period of 35 years at 5¾ per cent. interest under certain general conditions. We were able to report, that as a result of making the local loans available to local authorities, there was a very definite move on the part of the local authorities to build houses. At present, of the total number of 93 local authorities, including Town Commissioners, 27 local authorities are in the position that they have acquired sites and have had plans approved for the erection of 1,591 houses. In the case of another 22 local authorities they are acquiring sites, and plans are being prepared for 363 houses. During the last couple of months we have had a census taken by the local authorities of the total number of houses which they considered required to be built, in order to solve the working class problem in their area. On the survey, as carried out by the local authorities themselves, and the estimates furnished, we find that about 43,000 houses are, in the opinion of the local authorities, necessary.
I found it desirable to send an inspecting group, consisting of an architect, or an architect with a medical inspector, to examine the situation in the light of the figures submitted by the local authorities, with a view to satisfying ourselves as to the general reliance that could be placed on the figures submitted by the local authorities. I do not mean that we doubted the bona fides of the local authorities in submitting their figures, but we felt it was well to review their figures by expert technical men. Inspection of this particular kind was carried out in 23 districts out of 93, and in these 23 districts the number of houses estimated as required by local authorities was 6,738. The number estimated by the inspectors was 4,776. Thus it would appear that we might take 30 per cent. off the figure of 43,000 houses, and we are fairly sure that if 30,000 houses were built in these urban districts the position would be very satisfactory from the general housing point of view. As I say, the opening of the Local Loans Fund to the local authorities has brought about a speeding-up in the preparation of plans and the facing of the housing requirements in these districts by a large number of local authorities. The disposition in the local authorities is pretty satisfactory, although there are cases of local authorities making no attempt to deal with the housing problem that they know very definitely exists in their areas, and we will have to consider in time what steps require to be taken with regard to these local authorities.
The whole question of roads and the question of efficiency in the methods of the work itself, and of improving the organisation in the area of the road authorities, has continued to engage the unremitting attention of the Department. With the exception of a few counties there is no serious difficulty between the Department and the road authorities and, even in these counties, the difficulties have very largely disappeared. Taking the counties as a whole they have shown keen realisation of their road needs and desire to have, in the solution of their difficulties, the assistance which the Department can, and is always willing to, afford. So far as grants for the coming year are concerned we are for the present, allocating £700,000 towards the upkeep and improvement of roads. Whether any larger sum can be allocated will depend upon the revenue as well as upon the rate of expenditure in respect of new grants and commitments on foot of existing schemes. All our grants have been made in anticipation of revenue so that at the beginning of each financial year we have commitments to meet apart from new grants. These commitments of old grants at present amount to about £345,000. There is due to the Exchequer under the Old Road Fund Advances at present the sum of £640,000.
For the year 1927-28, the year in which the grant towards the upkeep of main roads was instituted, 1928-29 and 1929-30 we gave as an upkeep grant 50 per cent. of the cost of repair of main roads which were trunk roads, and 30 per cent. of the cost of those which were link roads. We found that this had two unsatisfactory aspects—one, a tendency to neglect link roads, the other, an involved and onerous amount of account keeping in the books of the county councils. A man employed on a trunk, link and county road in the one week had to have his wages apportioned to three different accounts, and, in some counties, entered on three separate pay-sheets. Accordingly, the position was examined, and it was decided to fix a flat rate for all main roads, whether trunk roads or link roads. One disadvantage in this is that, in future, the county council accounts will not show the expenditure as between trunk and link roads. It was felt, however, that with the data of the three years available the balance of advantage was in fixing a flat rate. This rate for 1930-31 is 40 per cent. of the cost of the repair of all main roads, and represents the proportion which the grant towards upkeep of main roads allocated in the past three years bore to the expenditure on these roads. The fixing of a flat rate has been welcomed by the county councils generally and the county surveyors as an improvement on the former basis, and, judging by the increased sums voted for the repair of main roads, leeway is being made up in regard to the link roads. The grant towards upkeep of main roads, which was about £200,000 when instituted, reached £300,000 in 1929-30, and will be nearly £340,000 for the coming year.
On the general question as to the amount of money being spent by local authorities, that is on general upkeep and repair only, the Deputies may be interested to have the figures, say, for the last three years. I will give the actual figures for 1927-28, and the estimated figures for the year 1928-29, and the year 1929-30. The gross amount spent in the year 1927-28 was £1,208,058, of which £198,589 was a grant, and the amount falling on the rates was £1,009,469. The gross amount in 1928-29 had increased to £1,284,360. The gross amount had increased in the year 1929-30 to £1,363,510. The grant in the year 1928-29 was £210,330, and in the year 1929-30 was £308,549. I have said it is increasing this year to £340,000. The total amount falling on the rates in the year 1928-29 was £1,074,030. This amount had decreased by about £20,000 in the year ending March, 1930, the net amount falling on the rates in that year being £1,054,961. For the current year the gross amount is £1,475,955, the net amount falling on the rates being £1,140,147. I quoted a figure last year as being the percentage increase over 1913-14 that local authorities were spending on their roads. I think I said that there was a difficulty in finding out exactly what local authorities spent on their roads in the year 1913-14, that certain loan charges might have been taken into consideration in the figure that was taken as a basis for the figure I gave last year. The figure I quoted last year as being the percentage increase last year has gone out of my head at the moment, but the estimated expenditure by local authorities this year when compared with 1913-14 shows an increase of 80 per cent. When we say that we have to remember, however, that there is an increased agricultural grant paid to local authorities since then. The average monthly employment on roads during the past eleven months on direct labour has been about 13,000 men; a high proportion of these men are employed on the maintenance of main roads.
The present system of carrying out engineering work in counties has grown up on somewhat indefinite lines, or rather upon lines which did not take into account the possibility of substantial savings in salaries and travelling expenses and which omitted altogether a consideration of the position of the chief engineering officer of the county—viz., the county surveyor. We have the position in which the twenty-seven county councils between them employ 30 county surveyors, 128 whole-time assistant surveyors, 10 part-time assistant surveyors, and I find that there are 31 boards of health and public assistance who administer between them practically the same territory as the county councils and employ upwards of 100 engineers or clerks of works. Several of the officers employed by boards of health and public assistance are already assistant county surveyors, but there are only two county surveyors employed by those boards —South Kerry and Limerick.
The result is there is a very considerable amount of overlapping, a very considerable want of co-ordination, and I have come to the conclusion that as we get an opportunity of reorganising in different counties we have to arrive at a position in which the county surveyor will be the chief engineering officer in the county. We are getting at present county surveyors appointed by the Local Appointments Commission. They are first class, all-round engineers. From the point of view of general benefit to the country alone, it would be very wrong that men with the possibilities of these men should get into the groove of simply being roads men and would be denied, simply because they were kept away from the work, the possibility of developing generally on the engineering side. If we had the county surveyor in the position of the chief engineering officer of the county, then he would be responsible for repairs to cottages, he would be responsible for waterworks schemes and sewerage schemes, not necessarily the person who would draw the plans in connection with big waterworks or sewerage schemes, but the person who would advise the local body in charge as to the type of the particular consulting engineer that would be brought in, and generally would be responsible for the administration of these services when they had been set up. However, the present position is that the county surveyor is simply responsible for his roads. The assistant county surveyors are simply responsible for roads, whereas they could, being men also who are selected through the Local Appointments Commissioners and men of general all-round engineering capacity, under the county surveyor as chief engineering officer, be responsible for all the engineering works in their sub-area. The matter has been taken up, I think, by three county councils at the present moment where circumstances are such as would make it possible to carry out all the necessary reorganisation by appointing a county surveyor who will be in the position of being the chief engineering officer of the county. Deputy Carey says, I think, that it would be impossible for the county surveyor to do all this. He ought not to judge by the position of Cork, which is very different.
