I move amendment No. 19:—
In page 29, before Section 62, to insert a new section as follows:—
(1) Where a college which awards any of the qualifying diplomas mentioned in the Second Schedule to the Medical Practitioners Act, 1927 (No. 25 of 1927), or a college of a university which awards any such diploma, requires facilities for the teaching of clinical medicine or for the conduct of medical research in a health institution—
(a) the Minister, if he so thinks proper, may by Order declare the institution to be a teaching institution,
(b) on the institution being declared to be a teaching institution—
(i) it shall be the duty of the health authority by whom the institution is maintained to provide in the institution such facilities for the teaching of clinical medicine or for the conduct of medical research as the Minister may direct from time to time,
(ii) in relation to the making of any appointment to the staff of the institution which is considered by the Minister to carry with it duties involving the teaching of clinical medicine or the conduct of medical research under the direction of one or more than one such college, any board constituted by the Local Appointments Commissioners in accordance with Section 9 of the Local Authorities (Officers and Employees) Act, 1926 (No. 39 of 1926), to interview candidates shall consist of a chairman nominated by the Minister and a number of other members, half of whom shall be nominated by such college or colleges.
(2) In this section "medicine" shall be construed as including surgery and midwifery, and "medical" shall be construed accordingly.
On the Committee Stage, I mentioned that I would be introducing an amendment dealing with the teaching bodies, the schools of medicine and their request for facilities for teaching hospitals. There has been a long time of negotiation between the Galway UniversityCollege and the Department of Health and the County Hospital in Galway which is now becoming a regional hospital. The position was that where an appointment was made by the Local Appointments Commission—let us say a surgeon to the county hospital, or a physician or a gynaecologist—University College, Galway, had no option but to accept the same man as their professor, and they considered that this rather handicapped them because they had no choice.
We had protracted negotiations on this matter, and while I felt that we should not depart from the principle that the local authority would have the appointment of a man to their hospital, University College, Galway, thought that they should have some say in the appointment of their own professor. Now after discussing the matter at length, both sides agreed that if they had an equal number on a selection board with a neutral chairman it would be the best solution. When we arrived at that stage, the college suggested that the Minister for Health should nominate the neutral chairman. I would like to assure the Dáil that I did not look for this job of nominating a chairman, but there appeared to be no other way in which it could be done by which to give it a neutral character, so I am therefore introducing this amendment; and the position will be this, that where a college think that they want facilities for teaching in any local authority hospital they will apply to the Minister for Health for an Order, and if the Minister for Health agrees that these facilities are necessary then he makes an Order and the local authority will provide the facilities for teaching in that particular hospital. Providing facilities means, of course, that they will permit their man to give clinical teaching to students of the college and provide for reasonable hours for those clinics and so on. Then, when the appointment comes to be made—it would not interfere, of course, with appointments that are there at the moment—when new appointments come to be made where the college claims that they have an interest in the matter and it is fairly obvious to the Minister that the manappointed will, in all probability, be the professor in the college, then the Minister will make a second Order having this machinery put into motion under which the appointment will be made and the appointment will go to the Local Appointments Commission in the usual way.
They will issue the advertisement, they will do the interviewing and so on, but in setting up their selection board they will have to follow the pattern laid down here in this amendment. They will accept a certain number of nominations from the college—let us say three—and they will appoint three themselves and then they will ask the Minister to appoint a chairman. The selection board having made their selection, the procedure will follow the usual Local Appointments Commissioner procedure with regard to the appointment being made. Of course, even with all this over there is no obligation on the college to appoint that man a professor, but at any rate they will have this machinery and we will have gone as far as possible to meet them.