asked the Minister for Health if he will explain the circumstances which resulted in the total of the advances from the Local Loans Fund for county homes and mental hospitals, in the financial year 1950-51 being only 25 per cent. of the amount which the Minister for Finance estimated, in his 1950 financial statement, to be required.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Local Loans Fund Advances.
I should first of all explain that the figure of £417,000 referred to by the Minister for Finance in his 1950 financial statement related to the estimated advances from the Local Loans Fund not only for county homes and mental hospitals but also for general hospitals, tuberculosis works, county clinics, dispensaries and dispensary residences and miscellaneous works. The advances from the fund for the year 1950-51 under those headings amounted to £109,131.
In arriving at an estimate of probable advances from the Local Loans Fund for these purposes, account must be taken, in relation to a large number of projects, of the time required to complete the remaining stages of planning, the placing of contracts, the securing of approval of loans, and the advance of actual building work to a stage at which advances from the fund would be necessary, taking account, where appropriate, of grants payable from the Hospitals' Trust Fund. Close estimating of advances is therefore very difficult, and the explanation for the smaller amount of the advances than was estimated is that the local authorities did not proceed as quickly with the works in question as was anticipated.
I should add, however, that the estimate of expenditure of £2,000,000 from the Hospitals' Trust Fund for these purposes during the year 1950-51 proved very close to being correct.