I move:
Go ndeontar suim ná raghaidh thar £529,991 chun slánuithe na suime is gá chun íoctha an Mhuirir a thiocfaidh chun bheith infoctha i rith na bliana dar críoch an 31adh lá de Mhárta, 1934, 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 áirithe bhaineann le hOispidéil.
That a sum not exceeding £529,991 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, 1934, 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 Authorities and Sundry Grants-in-Aid, and certain charges connected with Hospitals.
In connection with this Estimate, there is a net increase of £229,980 as compared with the total provision made for the financial year 1932-33, including the Supplementary Votes of £100,000 for free milk for children of persons in receipt of home assistance, and £140,000 for housing grants. The main increase in the present year's Vote is in respect of grants under the Housing (Financial and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1932. For this purpose an additional sum of £220,000 is required. The other main increases are in connection with the essential public health services which we desire to see maintained and extended. The reduction in the amount included for child welfare will not involve any curtailment of that service. It has been decided to transfer to the sanitary authorities the administration of the grant for free milk for necessitous children. In the areas where child welfare centres are established, the two services can be readily co-ordinated. In Dublin City there has already been close co-operation between the Child Welfare Committee and the Board of Assistance with beneficial results. On the transfer of the grant to sanitary authorities, free milk may be supplied to children of parents in necessitous circumstances, irrespective of whether they are in receipt of home assistance or not. Any tendency there has been up to the present for persons to seek home assistance with the object of qualifying for the grant of free milk will no longer exist. The grant has been of real benefit to the poor, and I am particularly desirous of seeing it distributed in the manner best suited to their needs.
The available statistics in regard to public health relate to the year 1931. In some respects they are less favourable than those for the year 1930. The number of deaths from typhus increased from four to 11. For typhoid fever, the number of recorded deaths in 1931 was 68, or two less than the previous year. There was a decrease of eight in the three Ulster counties, but this was offset by an increase of six in the Province of Leinster. Typhoid fever is a dangerous disease. Persons who have made a good recovery may continue to be a source of infection to others. The public health services administered through local bodies should, therefore, be directed to the necessary preventive measures by providing pure water supplies, enforcing proper sanitary conditions in populous areas and arranging for adequate supervision over milk supplies. In the past year there was every inducement given to local bodies to carry out essential public health works by the aid of contributions from relief funds, and the response made was encouraging. Fifty-two local authorities prepared schemes to which grants amounting to £130,000 were allocated. Most of the works are still in progress and apart from the lasting advantage which will accrue to public health, the execution of the works at the present time has been the means of affording employment to considerable numbers of men. In the present year, out of funds provided for relief works, we hope to make further grants towards the cost of carrying out essential public health schemes.
As regards the incidence of diphtheria, there has been a decrease of 69 in the number of deaths in 1931, as compared with 1930. The disease was very prevalent in the County Boroughs of Dublin, Cork and Limerick and in the Counties of Tipperary (S.R.), Cork, Galway, Limerick, Louth and Wexford. Immunisation campaigns against the disease have been carried out in Dublin and Cork county boroughs, and in the Counties of Cork, Galway and Wexford. Striking results have already been obtained in reducing the mortality of the disease in Cork City, where 6,436 children had been inoculated with toxin-anti-toxin up to the end of 1931. The number of cases of diphtheria in that year fell from 626 in 1930 to 282 in 1931. It is hoped that equally favourable results will ensue in the other areas where immunisation is being carried out. In Dundalk urban district, where an immunisation scheme was carried out a few years ago with favourable results, there has been an upward tendency in the incidence of the disease. To combat the disease successfully, immunisation schemes must be repeated periodically as the young children grow up. It is better, however, for local bodies to incur the expenditure of preventive measures so as to avoid the heavy toll of sickness connected with the disease and the premature wastage of human life.
The mortality amongst infants for the year 1931 was slightly higher than for the previous year, being 69 per 1,000 as compared with 68 for the previous years. There is also a slight upward tendency in the death rate from tuberculosis, the actual number of deaths from the disease in 1931 being 77 more than in 1930.
The schemes for maternity and child welfare and for the prevention of tuberculosis have been well maintained.
In the case of child welfare there has been a large addition to the number of voluntary associations engaged in this work, due mainly to the provision of funds under the Public Charitable Hospitals Act of 1931 for the training and maintenance of district nurses. Approved schemes for school medical inspection are in operation in the four county boroughs and in 18 counties. In some of the counties the schemes are only in the initial stages and full development is not expected for another year. In the year 1931, which is the latest year for which complete figures are available, the total number of children on the rolls in schools in which schemes were in operation was 331,087 of whom 85,513 were inspected during the year. The principal defects ascertained were:—(a) dental; (b) tonsils and adenoids; and (c) defective vision and other eye defects. The percentage of dental defects was 35.9; of tonsils and adenoids 26.8 and of defective vision 16.9. In the county boroughs the percentage of dental defects is higher than in the rural areas but the incidence of defective nose and throat conditions appears to be higher in children in rural areas. Until more progress has been made in the development of the schemes and statistics are available over a series of years it will not be possible to make reliable comparisons between the health of school children resident in urban and rural areas. In the earlier stages it is to be expected that children requiring urgent treatment obtain priority and the numbers in whom defects have been ascertained may be relatively high to the total number of school children.
School meals in urban areas are in operation in four county boroughs, 35 urban districts and two towns under town commissioners. The average number of children provided daily with school meals during the year ended 31st March, 1932, was 19,225. The total number of meals supplied was 3,261,220 of which 1,580,869 were supplied in Dublin City.
In the areas in the Gaeltacht in which school meals are provided the schemes were in full force in the Counties of Galway, Kerry and Donegal and most of the eligible schools in Mayo. In Cork County the scheme is applied to five of the eight eligible schools. The average attendance at all the eligible schools at which school meals may be supplied was 17,974.
Schemes for the welfare of the blind are in operation in all counties, except Cork and Roscommon and in the County Borough of Limerick, Amended schemes were framed to meet the altered conditions consequent on the passing of the Old Age Pensions Act of 1932 and the local authorities have been requested to deal as sympathetically as possible with the necessitous blind in their area so as to lighten the affliction under which they labour.
I have already alluded to the need for preventive measures to safeguard the public health. Most diseases have their origin and propagation in insanitary conditions and our efforts to uplift the standard of public health will not meet with success unless accompanied by improved housing conditions for the working classes. The provision for grants for the building and reconstruction of houses in the present year's Estimates amounts to £370,000 and there are being made available, by way of loan, sums of £1,000,000 for housing schemes in urban areas, exclusive of the County Boroughs of Dublin and Cork where the local authorities raise funds locally by issues of stock; £500,000 for labourers' cottages, and £200,000 for loans to local bodies making advances under the Small Dwellings Acts.
Up to the end of May the number of houses included in approved schemes of local authorities amounted to 5,010 of which 1,167 had already been completed; 2,975 were in course of construction and 868 about to be commenced. Schemes at present under consideration contemplate the provision of 19,801 additional houses. The number of houses being built by private persons or public utility societies up to end of May was 4,411, of which 2,479 are in urban districts and 1,932 in rural areas.
Of the 23,644 houses included in schemes in progress or in course of preparation by local bodies 11,041 are in urban areas and 12,603 in rural districts. In the urban areas the new houses are almost entirely for the rehousing of persons at present living in slums or condemned houses. Slum clearance orders have been made for a number of unhealthy areas in Dublin City, and also in Dún Laoghaire Borough, Clonmel Borough, Thurles Urban District, and Edenderry Town. Orders are being prepared for the clearance of similar areas in the County Boroughs of Cork, Limerick and Waterford, and preliminary steps have been taken for the clearance of unhealthy areas in a number of the smaller towns. In Dublin and Cork the local authorities are acquiring the clearance areas for rebuilding, but the tendency in the smaller urban areas is to rehouse the slum dwellers on virgin sites.
In Dublin 830 houses are in course of construction. Schemes for the building of 2,051 further houses are well advanced. In Cork a scheme for 252 houses for slum clearance is in progress. The scheme is being carried out adjoining an unhealthy area and when the houses have been built this area will be cleared and acquired for further building. The entire scheme will comprise 600 houses. Schemes for the building of 188 additional houses are in hands.
In Limerick progress has been slow—partly due to the difficulty of obtaining suitable sites within the city boundary. The Corporation have in hands a scheme for the reconstruction of the Castle Barracks into 32 dwellings and they are in negotiation for the acquisition of a site for the building of 257 houses. All these houses will be for the rehousing of persons in slum areas. In Waterford the Corporation have 45 houses in progress and tenders are being invited for 132 houses.
In regard to road administration there has been close co-operation between the Department and the local authorities and the county surveyors. Apart from the carrying out of the works under the usual road fund grants which amounted to about £850,000, additional works under the million road grant were undertaken by county councils at a cost of about £600,000, the balance of the grant being allocated to the urban areas. A substantial portion of the money allotted to county councils under the special relief scheme was expended on the strengthening, re-grading and widening as well as the re-surfacing of country roads.
The usual 40 per cent. grant to county councils towards the cost of upkeep of main roads is being provided in the present year. This grant will amount to, approximately, £350,000, while a sum of £500,000 will be available for improvement works.
The estimates for county councils for the repair and maintenance of roads in the present year show a slight decrease in respect of main roads, and a slight increase in respect of county roads. The net amount to be provided after allowing for the grant towards the upkeep of main roads is estimated at £1,163,500 or a sum of approximately £11,000 in excess of the amount provided in the previous year. Increased attention is being given by councils to the surface dressing of county roads. Last year 15 counties provided for surface dressing of 282 miles of county roads at a cost of £33,623. In this year 19 counties are providing similar treatment to 381 miles of county roads at a cost of £60,870. The counties where no provision is made under this head are Galway, Kerry, Leitrim. Mayo, Tipperary N.R., Wexford and Wicklow. The provision for the surface dressing of main roads in the present year is in respect of 1,633 miles at a cost of £225,245 as against 1,877 miles in the previous year at a cost of £269,114.