I spoke on this subject before. The last time I spoke on it there was one aspect of it that had not occurred to me in connection with the question of the hospitals to which grants are paid on this Vote. After I had spoken on it a medical man, a friend of mine, raised a point with me that I had not adverted to. I do not know whether the Minister could give us any information on the point, but perhaps if he cannot now he might look into it. The Vote is small. This year it is just £1,200. It is not so much the cost of the Vote, but there arises, as was said here over and over again, a matter of principle with regard to it. These grants made to these various hospitals are made by reason of old Acts of Parliament as is set out here, "recommended for grants by a Committee of the House of Commons in 1854 and by the Commission of 1855." None of us here wants to do anything that would be unfair or improper or would put these hospitals in a position which would prevent them doing the exceedingly good work that most of these hospitals, possibly all of them, are doing in the City of Dublin. Why the matter was raised here before by any of us is that it is putting these hospitals in a favoured position in comparison with similar institutions in Dublin and elsewhere. There are other hospitals that probably are equally badly in need of help from the national Exchequer and they get nothing. We put it to the Minister last year that if these donations are to be continued, the question of similar treatment for similar institutions in the City of Dublin ought to be raised by the Minister himself. Probably many of the hospitals, if not all of them, that are doing similar work and that I, at any rate, have in mind that could do with similar donations, were not in existence at all when these donations were agreed upon by the British House of Commons. We are continuing the practice. It is, of course, a good practice to support hospitals that are doing good public work as long as we can afford to do it. Again we want to emphasise the unfairness of it to other institutions that are equally needy.
There is one other aspect of the matter that, as I say, was put to me, and it is this: that so far as the staffing of a number of these hospitals is concerned, the professional men coming from the National University do not get a fair show. On the staffs of almost all of these hospitals if you are not a graduate of Trinity College you get little or no show. That is not fair. When that was put to me I said to the individual who told me that he should give me documentary proof, and he brought me, at the time, a list, first, of all the committees of control of these hospitals and then of the staffs of these hospitals. I know that in some of them his statement was not correct that the men from the National University did not get a fair show, but his statement was correct in so far as the majority of hospitals on this list was concerned. I was supplied with the list —I have not it by me now, but I can get it—of those who were responsible for the nominations and appointments, and also a list of the staffs, and judging by the results as shown to me, it would appear that the National University graduates did not get a fair show as far as appointments were concerned in a number of these hospitals.
If we are supporting these hospitals by public grants, we ought to insist on fairness all round. We do not want to be unfair to anyone. We do not want to take appointments from anybody unless on merit, but I think if there were a free and open field and no favouritism that the National men would certainly, under these conditions, have got a greater number of appointments than they seem to have got in the list shown to me of the staffs of a number of these hospitals. I think this is a matter which ought to be gone into, and if it can be shown that there is discrimination, not on the grounds of religion alone, because there are a good many Catholics in Trinity College, but on the grounds of being a graduate of one University or another, we ought not to subsidise any hospital on those conditions.