asked the Minister for Health on what principle the Cork City Manager and Town Clerk was appointed Manager of the Cork Health Authority; what experience of hospital administration Cork Corporation possesses; and if in view of the fact that the city pays only one-ninth of the total cost of the health services on a valuation basis and that eighty per cent. of the staff of the Authority will be county council officials at present engaged on health services consideration was given to the appointment of the Cork County Manager as Manager of the Health Authority.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Manager of Cork Health Authority.
3.
The Cork Health Authority is a joint body within the meaning of the County Management Acts. Section 8 of the County Management Act, 1940, provides that where the functional area of a joint body covers a county borough and a county, or portion of either, there shall be appointed, as manager of the joint body, either the city manager or the county manager. The Act does not lay down any principles or considerations which should govern the choice between the city manager and the county manager, for the good reason that the person appointed, whether he is the city manager or the county manager, while acting as manager of the joint body, holds no brief for the city or the county but is concerned only to ensure that the statutory functions of the joint body are discharged in the interests of the people of the city and the county alike and in conformity with the policy of the joint body.
The fact that the permanent post of county manager for Cork is vacant complicated the selection of the person to act as manager of the new authority. That authority will consist of 12 members appointed by the Cork Corporation and 28 members appointed by the Cork County Council and, even if the person appointed manager of that body were disposed to have a bias in favour of the city, presumably the County Council members of the Authority, preponderant in the matter of numbers, could be relied upon to ensure that the interests of the county will in no way be neglected. I had this fact in mind when I discussed with the Minister for Local Government the selection of the officer to be appointed. The Minister for Local Government also reminded me that the county manager's responsibilities. even excluding all health services. were substantially more onerous than those of the city manager and that the assignment to the latter of responsibilities for the Health Authority would merely go some way to redress a patently uneven division of work and enable the county manager to give wholetime attention to local government administration in Cork County.
I was also influenced by the fact that the present city manager has considerable experience of health administration, including hospital administration, by reason of his service with the Dublin and Cork Boards of Assistance, his later service as county secretary in a county which has a county hospital, a district hospital, a fever hospital, a county home and a sanatorium, and his more recent experience as manager for a county with a county hospital, a mental hospital, three district hospitals, a fever hospital, a county home and a sanatorium. Moreover, departmental experience of his performance in all these posts indicates that he is a person who is well qualified to be the manager of any health authority and I am satisfied that he will discharge the duties of the office adequately and with fairness to all concerned.
I cannot reconcile with the facts the Deputy's statement that Cork city "pays only one-ninth of the total cost of the health services on a valuation basis". Only the costs of the South Cork Board of Public Assistance were divided between the city and the county on a valuation basis and the cost of health services administered by that Board ranking for Health Services Grant recoupment is estimated in round figures at £476,000, of which the city pays £157,000, or roughly one-third.
In suggesting that 80% of the staff of the authority will be county council officials at present engaged on health services, the Deputy has apparently overlooked the large staffs employed by the mental hospital authority, the Joint Sanatoria Board and the South Cork Board of Public Assistance. These staffs are not county council officials but staffs of joint bodies.
Finally, I understand that it has been suggested that the choice made constitutes a reflection on the late Cork county manager and his assistants. There is no basis whatever for that suggestion and I am glad to take this opportunity of paying public tribute to them for the consistently efficient manner in which they performed their duties in relation to health matters.