asked the Minister for Health whether he is aware that there is considerable resentment at the refusal of a grant from Hospital Trust funds or from State funds towards the erection of a nurses' home urgently needed at Clonskea Fever Hospital; and, if so, whether he will take steps to ensure that the full cost of the building will not have to be borne by Dublin ratepayers.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Clonskea Fever Hospital Nurses' Home.
Mr. Byrne
I would refer the Deputy to my reply to a somewhat similar question on 17th November last. In that reply I explained, as I had explained to representatives of the Dublin Corporation on the previous day, the reasons which rule out the possibility of making a grant available for this work.
I should, perhaps, add that grants promised for works which are to be undertaken in Dublin as part of the short term hospital building programme will exceed £6,000,000. By reason of the fact that these grants are being provided, the ratepayers of Dublin are being relieved of a very heavy burden which they would otherwise have to bear in the provision of much needed extra hospital accommodation in the city. I do not think that any reasonable person, having gone fully into the facts could have grounds for feeling resentment at the decision concerning the work at Clonskea Fever Hospital.
Mr. Byrne
In view of the Minister's unsatisfactory reply, I should like to ask him if he is aware that Clonskea Fever Hospital is a national fever hospital, open to every county in Ireland, and in these circumstances is it fair that the ratepayers of Dublin, already overburdened, should have to pay for this new nurses' accommodation, which, no doubt, is urgently needed, particularly in view of the fact that he has many millions in the Hospitals Sweepstake Fund?
I wish I could agree with the Deputy in his last statement that there are many millions in the Hospitals Sweepstake Fund. That is not quite accurate, in so far as the millions that are in the fund have been allocated already. I do not think the Deputy would suggest that I should bring on any other local authority that is being helped, as I am helping the Dublin Corporation, the hardship which would follow a reallocation of any grant which I have promised to these local authorities, in order to relieve the burden which he suggests is being placed on the Dublin Corporation.
Mr. Byrne
Then I take it that the Minister insists on the Dublin ratepayers having to bear the cost of the nurses' home which will be required for the whole of Ireland.