asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health if he is aware that dispensary medical officers and medical officers of health are the only officials under the control of his Department who have not so far been granted an emergency bonus, and whether he is prepared to grant it to these officers.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Dispensary Medical Officers.
The granting of an emergency bonus to any particular officer or employee or class of officers or employees is a matter for the responsible local authority in the first instance. Any such proposals made by local authorities during the past year have been approved by me where the increases proposed were within the limits applied to lower-paid civil servants, Gárdaí and national teachers, in which cases the bonus was payable to whole-time officers in receipt of a total remuneration of not more than £397 16s. a year, and part-time officers with a total remuneration not exceeding £261 a year. Dispensary medical officers are part-time officers of the local authority and practically all of them have been in receipt of remuneration exceeding the limit of £261 a year. There were other classes of officials, mostly whole-time officers of local bodies, who also did not receive any emergency bonus since they were in receipt of total remuneration exceeding £397 16s. a year.
Under the Government decision of 20th January, 1944, the total remuneration in respect of which bonus increases may be granted to Government employees has been raised to £500 in the case of whole-time officers and to £365 in the case of part-time employees. I have received no proposals for the grant of bonuses to dispensary medical officers since the publication of that decision which raises the limit of total remuneration for part-time employees from £261 to £365 a year.