asked the Minister for Health if he will consider introducing parallel conditions relative to the payment of weekly allowances to patients in hospitals to equate conditions for those in receipt of disabled persons' maintenance allowances with those in receipt of infectious diseases maintenance allowances.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Patients' Allowances.
4.
As the Deputy is presumably aware, the Disabled Persons (Maintenance Allowances) Regulations, 1961, do not provide for the payment of allowances to disabled persons maintained in an Institution. Expenditure on these allowances has increased in recent years and is now approximately £700,000 per annum and in the circumstances I regret that I could not at this stage consider any alteration in the conditions governing their payment which would have the effect of increasing substantially the cost of this scheme.
Would the Minister not agree that many of the people in hospital under the Disabled Persons Regulations would be orthopaedic cases and would have to spend an extended period in hospital? Does he not consider that it imposes a great hardship on them when they have no allowance and no funds at their disposal whatever?
I think the Deputy misunderstands the reason why the disabled persons' allowances are being granted. They are granted to relieve the distress which would be caused by reason of a person's ability to maintain himself. When a person is in hospital he is being maintained at the public expense by the local authority.
At the same time, he is in hospital for many months without a solitary penny in his pocket. Does the Minister not think that is imposing a great hardship? Would he not consider a small allowance, even 2/- a week?
Since the public are taking over the whole cost of his maintenance, I suggest his relations might provide him with pocket money.