I move:
That a Supplementary Sum not exceeding £800 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st March, 1960, for the Expenses of the Maintenance, etc., of Patients in Dundrum Asylum (8 and 9 Vict., C. 107; and No. 19 of 1945).
The need for this Supplementary arises from the granting of improved basic scales of pay to the attendant staff at Dundrum Asylum following negotiations at conciliation level within the scheme of Conciliation and Arbitration for the Civil Service. The revised scales of pay are the same as those for comparable grades within the prison service which were granted following an Arbitrators' award also under the scheme for Conciliation and Arbitration for the Civil Service.
It is calculated that the cost of these increases for the current year will amount to £1,100. There are, however, savings of the order of £200 ordinarily available on the Salary Subhead of the Vote and, in addition, it is possible to take credit for a further saving of £100 on another subhead thus reducing the additional sum required to one of £800.
I might mention that the increases in pay which give rise to this Supplementary Estimate relate only to the basic scales of the attendants in the Asylum. The Supplementary Estimate does not include anything in respect of the general cost-of-living increases granted with effect from the 15th December, 1959, to the Civil Service. The additional expenditure involved in meeting this latter increase in respect of the staffs of the Dundrum Asylum has been included in the general Supplementary Vote for Increases in Remuneration which was passed by the House on the 2nd of this month.
