On the adjournment last night, I was dealing with the menace of tuberculosis, and I think we cannot emphasise too strongly that some immediate measures must be taken to deal with this menace. In my county, unfortunately, the medical officer of health has reported an increase in that disease for the present year, and, of course, like all other counties we have not half sufficient facilities to deal with our patients in the early stages of this disease. In the locality that I come from, I knew of a very respectable, decent and healthy-looking family—two or three of them became members of the Civic Guards—and I saw that family, one after the other, pining away during the last ten years, with the result that out of a family of seven or eight only one is left to-day. Each of these people lived in the same house, and I think it was very unfortunate that the authorities did not take it into their heads to burn that house to the ground because, at the present day, I see that it is occupied by the remaining member of that family, who herself has a young family. I think it should have been the duty of the State to step in and raze that house to the ground and give at least this young family a chance of living a long life. I think it is a pity that the authorities allowed a house that was reeking with consumption for the best part of 30 years to be occupied again by a family. Something should be done to see that houses where tuberculosis has appeared over a long number of years should not be allowed to be inhabited by any other person, because it is only a means of spreading the scourge still further. I do not want to see these houses razed to the ground unless alternative accommodation is provided for the people concerned.
There is a good deal of talk all over the country about our local elections. It is unfortunate, I think, that the Minister did not see fit to have them this year. Our present public bodies are getting rather stale, and it is very hard at times to get a quorum to attend for a meeting. When a new county council, for example, is elected the members take a lively interest in the work. That is a good thing for the ratepayers. The present public bodies are so old that they are practically dead, so that the work devolves to a large extent on the officials. I suggest to the Minister that he should arrange for local elections to be held so that the people will have an opportunity of getting new blood into our public bodies. We hear a lot of talk about the Minister abolishing public bodies throughout the country. I am not a bit sorry because we know that many of them were not doing their duty. We have a new Minister in office now, and I suppose he would like to see something done to clean up the mess that was there. He has boldly taken in hands the suppression of certain local bodies. He may have gone too far in some cases, but still, I think, he is doing the right thing. If a public body is not doing its work in the right way it is the ratepayers who suffer. In abolishing some of these public bodies the Minister may be doing a very good day's work for the country. At the same time, I do not believe in abolishing a public body and putting a commissioner in charge for a period of, say, from four to five years. I think the people in that area should be given an opportunity of electing a new council. In the County Westmeath we had a public body abolished, and, I believe, rightly so. A commissioner has been in charge for a long number of years, and he has succeeded in putting things ship-shape again. It is not, however, fair to the ratepayers that he should be kept there as a permanent official. The people of that county should be given the opportunity of electing a new county council and of carrying out its administrative work in their own way.
There is a good deal of complaint about the delay that takes place in getting replies from the Department to correspondence sent up by local bodies. On that question I suppose there is a good deal to be said on both sides. Sometimes, I suppose, foolish schemes are sent up, and it is a good thing for the people that they are held up by the Department so that they may get mature consideration. At the same time, some proposals from local bodies are held up too long by the Department, and that causes a good deal of irritation amongst the public representatives.
I have to complain of the discrimination that is shown by the Department in the matter of sanctioning increases in salary to county officials. When, for example, a county council proposes to increase the salary of one of the higher officials sanction is back almost immediately. In most cases those higher officials are already adequately paid. But when a recommendation goes up for an increase in salary to a junior clerk, an office boy or a door-boy who may have only 30/- or 35/- a week, we find that it is turned down by the Department. The application for sanction is renewed, with the same result. That is a thing that also causes a lot of irritation. I think it is very unfair to give immediate sanction to increases to the higher officials, most of whom are in receipt of very good salaries, and to turn down increases proposed to junior officials. Of course, there is always, unfortunately, that tendency in this country to treat the under-dog in that way. The big fellow is always looked up to although, as we know, he is generally well able to look after himself. I am not at all satisfied with the salaries that are being paid to some of these higher officials. I think the fair thing would be to have a fixed salary for all officials. The position is that members of public boards do not, in fact, know the total salaries that some of their higher officials are drawing. They may have a salary of £200 or £300 a year or more—some of them have £700 and £800 a year—but in addition they are also in receipt of fees and are paid travelling expenses. Some of them, I think, are far too well off, so that the fairest thing would be to have fixed salaries. Many of those officials are able to earn money outside their official hours.
I would like to say a word on behalf of the midwives and the jubilee nurses we have in the country. They are doing work of the utmost importance, and yet from the point of view of salary they are being treated in a humiliating and despicable way. It is not good enough that an Irish Government should so treat them. They have to keep up a respectable position and should be paid a decent salary. From the point of view of salary they are little better off than some people who are on home help. Their salaries are so small that, after they have paid for their lodging, for the upkeep of a bicycle or for the occasional hire of a car, very often they find themselves absolutely stranded at the end of the week. Their work is of the greatest importance from the point of view of the health of the people, and they should be adequately remunerated. It would be a good thing for the country if the Department rectified this matter.
Something should also be done to get a more generous allowance of petrol for our chief home-help officers. Their work is of the greatest importance. They are first-class men and render splendid service to the poor. How can they do their work properly if they are not given a sufficient allowance of petrol to enable them to get around and visit the sick, poor and others in need of help? I would ask the Minister to use his influence with the Department of Supplies to get those important officials a larger supply of petrol so that they may be in a position to discharge their duties properly.
So far as the Department is concerned, great strides have been made in carrying out schemes for the benefit of the people, especially in regard to housing and sanitation. We must admit that all this work has been well done under its direction. At the same time there is a section of the community that I should like to see brought under the Local Government Department for housing purposes if at all possible and that is the small uneconomic farmers. These small farmers are in a deplorable position as regards housing and no Department seems to be able to cater for them, while they have to pay their share of the taxation for the amenities provided for the towns and villages from which they get no benefit. I think the present Minister is a go-ahead Minister and he would do a very good day's work if he would try to work out some scheme of housing for those people who are on the borderline between labourers and farmers. After all, a small farmer with five or ten acres is really a labouring man. In nearly every case these small farmers are living in tumbled-down thatched houses, very often on the borders of a bog. It is from these houses that most of our tuberculous patients come. If we want to deal with tuberculosis properly we must provide proper housing for our people. There is a large section of our people who do not come under any housing scheme and until these old houses are razed to the ground and some scheme brought in to house these people properly we will not be able to deal with tuberculosis and other diseases as they should be dealt with.
Then as regards labourers' cottages, I should like the Minister to realise that in my county particularly, where there was a large amount of land division and where there are hundreds of labourers' cottages, many of the cottages have farms of land attached to them. In nearly every case where land was divided five or six or ten acres were given to labourers living in these cottages. I think it is the duty of the Local Government Department to take over those cottages and vest them in the tenants, just as the holdings are vested in them. Endless trouble is caused when a cottager who has a small farm of land dies and has not settled his affairs. The cottage may be given to another labourer, but the land is left without anybody to claim it. I think that these cottages should be vested in the tenants through the Land Commission and the burden of repairing them taken off the ratepayers.
I agree with Deputies who have spoken of the dangerous state of the roads for horse traffic. I agree that the roads have been kept in a splendid state of repair and that great improvements have been made in road construction. But now we are back to the horse-drawn vehicles again and possibly will have to depend on them for five or six years. I think it is only right, therefore, that the roads should be made serviceable for the farmers who are responsible for producing the food of the people.
I should like to emphasise that in my county tuberculosis is on the increase. I think that is one of the matters upon which the Local Government Department should concentrate. There should be no sparing of money in dealing with that disease, because if it spreads, owing to the poverty and bad food in many homes, it will be very hard to deal with it later on. We have in County Meath a first-class scheme for dealing with this disease. We have as county medical officer of health one of the chief medical authorities in this country—Dr. O'Higgins. We also have a young and enthusiastic assistant to him, a man of whom much will be heard in the near future. He is out to deal thoroughly with the disease of tuberculosis and to find a remedy for it. He is hard at work on it morning, noon and night. He is looking up sufferers all over the county and is really enthusiastic in the matter. If the services which he has been carrying on for the last three or four years were allowed to lapse for want of money a great disservice would be done to the county. I ask that any money which can be spared should be given to deal with this matter. Unfortunately, in the Midlands, especially in bog areas, we always have a large number of families suffering from this disease, and tuberculosis has really got a grip in these areas. I have known of three or four families who have been wiped out by this disease in the course of 15 or 20 years. No effort was made to isolate these people or to have them put in a sanatorium. Of course isolation is the chief thing which we need. As a result of the Sweepstakes we have at our disposal for hospital accommodation more funds than practically any other country, but, unfortunately, we have the worst type of accommodation for sufferers from this disease. In the town of Trim there is what I might call a little glass hut for our chronic patients, in which they are all herded together in full view of the public. Every other week two or three or four of them die. Some of these patients are allowed to walk around the town. What is wanted is a decent isolation hospital for those people where they can be given proper treatment. It is not fair to have them in a town where they may be a source of infection.
I am glad to say that the Minister since he took over office has shown that he is the boss. We have all over the country public bodies which are absolutely not doing their duty. That may be a hard thing to say, but it is the ratepayers who are calling out for the abolition of many of these public bodies, and the voice of the ratepayers should be heard. Some years ago, the ratepayers in my county were demanding the abolition of the council because of the rotten way it was being run. Fortunately, public opinion brought about a vast change in that council. To-day we have a council which is working in harmony; all political parties are working together. Previously we had a chairman who was appointed on political lines, and he was nothing more than a despot, who irritated both the public and the members of the council, with the result that even his colleagues could not put up with him any longer and they got rid of him. At present we have a decent, honourable chairman. He is a strong supporter of the Fianna Fáil Party, but he is a man for whom we have every respect. It is these despots who get into control who do a vast amount of harm. Happily in my county we are now working well together and doing good service, and I do not think there will be any need for the suppression of the Meath County Council and Board of Health. The council is now being run on tip-top lines. We have as secretary a first-class man, who will not let anything go wrong, and he is a credit to the country. I ask the Minister to stick it out and not to be afraid of public opinion if he finds that public boards are not doing their work properly. There was nothing honest about the last election six or seven years ago. It was fought bitterly, with the result that people were elected on Party lines. There was not what you might call a free vote of the people. What can you expect from an election like that? The best and proper type of representative was not elected to many of the boards. In my county I know that men whom we wanted to go forward for election would not go forward. They would, however, be willing to go forward to-day. What we want in the coming council election is that business will take the place of politics. At the last election the politics were rotten and despicable and were no credit to us. In future we should get the best brains and the best type of honourable men for our public boards. Then we will not have the corruption or bribery or rottenness which we know exists in many public bodies. We should make every effort to get away from that. A man of that type is a canker in public life.