asked the Minister for Health if he will state (a) the number of nurses, and other staff, of the Vergemount Fever Hospital, Dublin, who are forced to live in lodgings due to inadequate accommodation at the hospital; and (b) why the Government refuses to grant any part of the proposed capital expenditure estimated at £120,000 by Dublin Corporation, to provide adequate accommodation within the hospital precincts for all personnel.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Accommodation for Hospital Personnel.
There are 36 nurses who reside outside the institution and are paid an allowance in lieu of residence.
Eighteen of these nurses are also paid an allowance in lieu of board. The remaining 18 nurses are provided with board. All these nurses are temporary.
Of the 26 maids in the hospital two live out but receive meals on duty. These two are paid an allowance in lieu of residence and partial board.
I regret that the commitments of the Hospitals Trust Fund arising out of the short-term hospital building programme are such as to make it impossible for me to authorise grants from the fund for the provision of extra staff accommodation at local authority hospitals, as in this case, without reducing the number of extra patients' beds being provided with the assistance of grants under that programme.
Mr. Byrne
Will the Minister say what is to become of the nurses who are required for night duty? Where are they to be accommodated? Will he say that it is not possible to give a grant out of the Hospitals Trust Fund? We understand it is very successful. The corporation is most anxious to provide housing accommodation for the nurses in the hospital and, under the circumstances, it should have been one of the first claims on the Hospitals Trust Fund. There is no doubt about that.
In reply to the Deputy, it would appear to me that it is the responsibility of the health authority, which is the Dublin Corporation in this case, to find accommodation for the staff which must do night duty in the Vergemount Fever Hospital. As far as I am concerned in the Department of Health, I will do my best to ensure that hospital beds are provided out of the Hospital Sweep money but, as I made it clear yesterday to a deputation which saw me on this matter, considerable contributions have been given to the Dublin Corporation's responsibilities in the nature of hospital beds in Blanchardstown, in Ballyowen and in the new hospitals, St. Vincent's, St. Laurence's Hospital, St. Mary's Tuberculosis Institution, Crumlin Children's Hospital, all amounting to many millions of pounds to which the Dublin Corporation have to make no contribution whatsoever.
Mr. Byrne
The Minister is aware that all these contributions came out of the Hospitals Trust Fund and what he is asking is that the Dublin City ratepayers, already overburdened, should pay extra rates to provide housing accommodation for nurses in a fever hospital.
Has the Deputy a supplementary question?
Mr. Byrne
I am putting the supplementary question: is it right or proper that the Dublin ratepayers should be called upon to provide this extra money in view of the handsome funds at the Minister's disposal in the Hospitals Trust Fund? Dublin is bearing too much in its rates.
I am indebted to the Deputy for his consideration for the ratepayers of Dublin—it is a consideration which I share—but the Deputy must be aware that there are certain loan facilities which can be availed of by the corporation, if they so wish. In addition, the Hospitals Trust Fund is not a fund designed primarily to relieve the ratepayers of any corporation, county council or other local authority area of their responsibilities to the sick.