asked the Minister for Health if he will sanction the allocation of a grant from Hospitals' Trust funds for the provision of modern maternity wards at the district hospitals of Birr and Edenderry, County Offaly, and instruct the council concerned to carry out the work immediately.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Maternity Wards.
A grant from the Hospitals' Trust Fund was made towards the cost of a maternity unit at Edenderry District Hospital in 1941. The unit was provided but it was never used for maternity purposes. I have recently informed the Offaly County Council that I consider it essential that accommodation for maternity patients should be made available without delay in Edenderry District Hospital. I have suggested that alternative arrangements should be made to accommodate the staff of the hospital and that the present staff accommodation should be used as a maternity unit, as was originally intended.
I have also recently suggested to the local authority that a few maternity beds for normal cases might be provided at Birr District Hospital.
The works arising from the above proposals would not involve heavy expenditure, and I regret that owing to the very heavy commitments on the Hospitals' Trust Fund arising out of other urgent works I am not in a position to authorise grants for these projects.