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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 19 Jul 1934

Vol. 53 No. 14

Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Furniture for N.H. Insurance Society Offices.

asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health if he will state whether chairs or other items of furniture have been manufactured by or purchased from the Tan-Sad Chair Company, Limited, Lodge Causeway, Fishponds, Bristol, for use in the offices of the new National Health Insurance Society; and if he will state the number and value of these different articles of furniture, and why foreign manufactured furniture is being purchased for the offices of this society.

Mr. Boland

The purchase of furniture for the National Health Insurance Society is entirely a matter for the Provisional Committee of Management of the society whose functionss are to superintend and conduct the business of the society. The only function of the Minister is to see that the society is properly administered in accordance with the Acts and regulations.

Is the Minister, then, in the position that he has appointed three persons to run a society for a period which may extend to three years, and that there have been appointed persons who are providing the new society—which is financed by a considerable amount of State money, as well as money from the employers and working people of this country—to some extent, at any rate, with foreign-made furniture?

Mr. Boland

As I say, a committee has been appointed—it is a provisional committee—to manage this society. They are not compelled to consult the Minister about what furniture they require, and they have not done so in this case.

Might I ask the Minister if he would consider it within his province to advise those persons whom he has appointed to run this society that they ought not to be spending Irish money on the importation of foreign furniture when there are so many furnishing factories on part-time in the country?

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