asked the Minister for Health if he will state why no report of the Hospitals Commission has been published since the seventh report for the years 1945, 1946 and 1947, and if he will indicate when the reports for the years since 1947 will be published.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Hospitals Commission Report.
The publication of a report of the Hospitals Commission is a matter for the commission.
I am informed that in previous years the statistical and other information contained in the report was not available to the hospitals until the report had been published. This involved considerable delay in making the information available to the hospitals. In recent years this information is circulated to the hospitals concerned by the Hospitals Commission each year. The commission has informed me that the public demand for the report was very small and it has accordingly decided that as the essential information is available to the hospitals, it would not be justified in incurring the expense involved in publication of a report in future.
It might be all right for a particular hospital to get the information it wants in this way butsurely this House is entitled to know what the report would be in regard to the Hospitals' Trust Fund from 1947 to 1953? It is rather strange that we have not got a report since 1947. Will the Minister now say that we shall get a report so that we can know the position of the Hospitals' Trust Fund?
There is no statutory obligation on the commission to publish a report. The Deputy will notice that when the last Government came in they stopped publishing a report.
They had no right to stop it.
That is right.