asked the Minister for Health if he will state, in view of the fact that the registered patient population of mental hospitals is the figure accepted by his Department for official and statistical records, by what statutory authority the county managers have decided to relate the salaries of senior nursing staffs in district mental hospitals to the resident patient population rather than to the registered patient population.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Salaries of Mental Hospital Nurses.
3.
The powers exercised by local authorities and the appropriate Minister in relation to the fixing of rates of remuneration for staffs employed by such authorities are conferred by the Local Government Act, 1941. The basis of determination of the rate of remuneration in any particular case, or in respect of any particular class, description or grade of office, is an administrative matter and does not require statutory authority. The salaries of, inter alia, supervisory nursing staffs employed in district mental hospitals are differentiated on the basis of the resident patient population of the individual hospitals in accordance with an authority issued from my Department in 1952. I would not consider it appropriate to differentiate salaries according to the numbers of registered patients as the work of the staffs concerned is not influenced by patients who are not resident in the institutions. In addition, such procedure could lead to abuse in maintaining the names of patients on the registers for longer than is necessary in order to justify payment of salaries at the higher rates.