In many cases it is being sent back, but the public do not always get to know about it. I was reading during the week-end—I do not know whether it has been brought to the Minister's notice yet or not—a report of a meeting of the Monaghan and Cavan Mental Hospital Committee. Various articles supplied through the Central Purchasing Department were under discussion at that meeting. The Resident Medical Superintendent reported regarding socks which were supplied. The wool, of course, is far cheaper than the wool they used to get, but the socks made from that wool will not last more than a single day. As regards the soap, he reported that if you dissolve it in water, the water becomes black and muddy and gives out a most offensive odour. In fact, he says it is impossible to use that soap for washing purposes. That is the soap supplied by the Central Purchasing Department. Regarding the whiskey used in these institutions as a stimulant for patients, the Resident Medical Superintendent of this institution declared that it would be a danger to give the whiskey that is supplied to human beings—that it is not, in his opinion, fit for human consumption. Members of the Mental Hospital Committee who have some knowledge, gained in different ways, of that particular drug, stated that the whiskey fit to be used as a stimulant could not be supplied at the price at which this stuff is supplied by the Central Purchasing Department. I have no doubt that there is a very big saving in the use of this stimulant in these public institutions, but if what is supplied is an article little better than poteen, it is a form of economy that should not be encouraged.
Materials supplied by the Central Purchasing Department have been returned. From this institution that I mentioned some considerable consignments of cloth have been returned in the recent past. It was inferior in quality and it was short in weight. When it was brought to the notice of the contractor and to the notice of the Central Purchasing Department, the contractor actually complained that he had been supplying cloth of the same weight and of the same quality all over the Twenty-six Counties and that no other public body had questioned the matter. Eventually, he had to admit that the cloth was short in weight and inferior in quality, so that it would appear he had escaped for a considerable time, and he had actually a grievance that he was caught at all. I do not know if the same contractor is still supplying the Central Purchasing Department, but I presume the Minister will inform us upon that point.
There is another matter concerning the Central Purchasing Department that I want to refer to—that is, the supply of tar for road-making. The central contractors for this tar, I understand, are MacCrae, Taylor and Company. Some time ago, the county surveyor of our county came to the conclusion that he was not getting sufficient yield from the tar which he was receiving—that it was not going as far as it ought to go. He had five barrels arrested at random and sent to the Civic Guard barracks. He sent for a representative of the firm and a representative of the Trade Department. These barrels were examined and measured, and it was found that there was a shortage—a considerable shortage. The contracting firm offered to supply 6,000 gallons of tar to make good the deficit. The Local Government Department were prepared to accept that amount, but the very efficient and capable county surveyor estimated that the loss was at least 18,000 gallons and he would not accept the 6,000 gallons. As a matter of actual fact, MacCrae, Taylor and Company put up the 18,000 gallons of tar. I wonder if the same thing has been happening all over the Twenty-six Counties where these people have been supplying tar? I wonder if MacCrae, Taylor and Company are black-listed, or if they are still supplying tar to the various public bodies?
There is an item in the Estimate under the heading of "Child Welfare." I have no complaint to make on that score. I believe there is no expenditure from which better results are got than expenditure on Child Welfare schemes, but until such time as the supply of milk for human consumption is regulated and until such time as steps are taken to ensure that the milk of cows suffering from tuberculosis will not go on the market for human consumption, Child Welfare schemes will be working at the wrong end of the rope. A very big percentage of disease and death amongst children is caused by impure milk, and in present circumstances we are going to have all Child Welfare nurses, doctors, and all the rest devoting their energies to the cure of diseases that are caused by the impure milk supply. I hope the Minister will take an early opportunity of dealing with the question of pure milk supply.
There is a large expenditure on the treatment of tuberculosis. With that we cannot find much fault, but again it appears to me that we are working at the wrong end of the disease. Most of this expenditure is in providing sanatorium treatment and home treatment, but there does not appear to me to be much use in spending huge sums of money in building up people constitutionally in sanatoria or in other institutions if we are to send them back again to live under the same domestic conditions, the identical conditions which brought about the disease. Until a serious effort is made to improve the social conditions, to improve the housing conditions, to improve the sanitary conditions, to medically inspect the schools, to get at the disease in its early stages, until these steps of preventive medicine are seriously practised, there will be no headway made in this country under the Public Health Department. To a great extent, except for the purpose of isolation, a whole lot of our effort and expenditure is wasted at the present time, inasmuch as it is entirely devoted to and centred on treating the disease without making any serious effort to prevent it. Such preventive measures as a national scheme of afforestation, one of the most important preventive measures against pulmonary tuberculosis, because of the effect it would have on the climatic conditions, on the mean temperature, and on the condition of moisture in the air, ought to be taken. Another matter that has a very close bearing on tuberculosis in this country is housing. We find a big change in the Estimate for housing this year. The grants to the various authorities for housing this year are reduced by £86,220. We have an item of expenditure of £7,000 in the Estimate for the treatment of venereal disease. That, too, is not giving a proper return. We have these schemes in operation, I think, in most counties, but what actually happens is this: when a person contracts such a disease he will not go to the doctor who is known to be the medical officer for the treatment of this disease. He will either go to a private practitioner or go untreated. I think it would be far better if these people were brought to a central hospital in Dublin and if the £7,000 were spent in providing bed accommodation in one of these hospitals. I feel strongly on that, and I speak with a considerable amount of practical knowledge of it. People suffering from this disease should be isolated until they are certified to be cured.
Regarding the road grants, perhaps I might get some light from the Minister when he is summing up. There are some points that I am not clear about. I understand that the national route mileages in the Counties Monaghan, Meath and Louth, for instance, are approximately the same. Louth, I think, is somewhat longer. I find that £105,000 has been allotted to Meath for the past couple of years; £120,000 to Louth, and £56,000 to Monaghan. I am not clear how the Minister or his Department arrives at the allocation of these grants, but it does seem strange to me that £2 per mile should be allotted to Meath for the £1 per mile allotted to Monaghan. These are counties that are near me. I am not in a position to compare how we stand with other counties throughout the Saorstát. It is a matter that perhaps can be explained, but it certainly requires explanation. If it means that the roads in Meath and in Louth are being made twice as good and twice as lasting as the roads in Monaghan, and if the argument be put forward for the larger grant that the valuation of these counties is higher—in other words, that the people are richer—that is an argument I would join issue with. If twice as much money is spent on a particular road as upon another, it will naturally last twice as long, and when it comes to the upkeep of these roads the poor counties will suffer if their roads are not as lasting as a result of this initial expenditure as the others. In that connection I would like to know what is the cost per square yard of the different roads. Mileage is not a true indication, inasmuch as one road may be wider than another. I would like to know what is the cost per square yard of the national route in the three counties I mentioned.
On the question of amalgamation, it has been found in the working out that there are some practical difficulties. It appears there is not any uniform method in operation of dealing with these difficulties, because I have found in discussing the matter with Deputies from various sides of the House that the same difficulties do not appear to exist in different areas. One of the great difficulties—a difficulty which is almost universal—is the difficulty of the unmarried mother. I think the Minister should seriously consider the question of setting up separate institutions for that particular class—institutions to accommodate three or four counties. I believe that, with the development of cottage industries in such an institution and with compulsory powers to keep the mother there for a year or so, such an institution could be made self-supporting. So long as unmarried mothers are housed in County Homes, the County Homes can never be what the pioneers of amalgamation meant them to be. There is a further difficulty—whether it is peculiar to my particular area or whether it is universal, I do not know. We find considerable difficulty in getting the poor man's wife into the County Hospital for the period of her confinement. We find it impossible in some cases. Married women have actually been refused admission to the County Hospital—I am dealing now particularly with the destitute poor— on the ground that the County Home was the place for them. I think there should be very definite and specific regulations on this question. The poor man's wife should not be sent into the maternity department of the Co. Home, which is accommodating that other class of the community to which I have alluded.
I think it is altogether unfair and that there should be very definite regulations on that matter and these regulations should be universal. There is another matter regarding the hospitals and homes in some areas that is causing a very serious hardship. That is the extreme difficulty in getting cases requiring special surgical or medical treatment to a city hospital. There does not appear to be any universal standard or uniform regulation regarding this matter. I understand in certain counties if the dispensary doctor forms the opinion that a certain case is one requiring specialised treatment, surgical or medical, he can send such a case to a city hospital. He cannot do that in the part of the country to which I belong. The local government inspectors have actually insisted that cases should go into the county hospital first and that it is only through the county hospital or the county home that these cases could be sent to a specialist for treatment. Anybody can see the obvious hardship and danger of having to send a case first to the county home or hospital in order to have it decided there whether special treatment is or is not necessary. There are cases of very great urgency and delay is extremely dangerous. There should be no restriction put on the dispensary medical officer any more than in the days of the British Local Government. He should be enabled to send these cases direct to Dublin when in his opinion it is necessary for the saving of life to do that. I do not know whether the Minister is aware that these restrictions have been put on. I know that they have been put on by his inspectors, either with or without his knowledge or consent. I do not see why admission tickets could not be issued to dispensary medical officers for the institutions that are on the prescribed lists in Dublin, Cork, Galway, and elsewhere, where there are lists of hospitals prescribed. The medical officer could estimate the amount that people could afford to pay. People who could not pay the ordinary current charges in a city hospital could contribute something. I would like the Minister to look into this question and remove the restrictions that are being imposed, and that sometimes actually result in loss of life. I do not want to go into the thing in greater detail, but I could give unpleasant details.