asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health if he will state whether any order or instruction has been issued from his Department to the Wicklow County Board of Health, abolishing sub-committees and directing that in future the Home Help Inspector is the only person to recommend and pay home help, and if this is so, whether he will state what Act, or provisions of the Amalgamation Scheme, give power to deprive elected representatives of recommending relief in cases of emergency.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - WICKLOW RELIEF RECOMMENDATIONS.
An Order has been issued entitled the County Board of Health (Assistance) Order, 1924, prescribing rules and regulations for the administration of home assistance. The Order sets out the procedure, in regard to the granting of home assistance, under which the assistance officers are required to investigate each application and furnish the Board of Health with particulars on prescribed forms, to enable that Body to decide on the merits of the applications. The assistance officer is the only person who can pay home assistance. The regulations are made under the Poor Relief Acts and the Local Government (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1923, particularly section 10. Elected representatives have still the power of making recommendations to the Board of Health in regard to applications for relief, but the function of granting relief rests with the Board of Health as a body.
Would the Minister be prepared to consider the appointment of sub-Committees in large areas to deal with relief cases and to allow them to pay relief provisionally?
I would like to have notice of that question.
In a case where the claimant is living a distance from the Relieving Officer, who is to grant relief in a case of emergency?
The Assistance Officer.
But if the Assistance Officer is twenty miles distant from the area I mention, who is to grant it in the meantime?