I am glad Deputy O'Kelly reminded the Minister of his predecessor's promise, because I had intended doing so. The year 1855 is not so very fresh in the memory of any Deputy except, perhaps, Deputy Sheehy. It is more or less obvious from the figures given in the Estimates that the conditions have changed substantially since that early period. These figures, particularly the figures showing the estimated expenditure of the different hospitals, present a variety of anomalies. There is the Coombe Lying-in Hospital, which I will take as an example. It is in one of the poorest districts of Dublin and it is doing very valuable work. That hospital receives just about two and a half per cent. of its total estimated expenditure. On the other hand, as regards the House of Industry Hospitals, I do not know what they are or where they are. The only House of industry I know is the Dáil, and I do not know that there is any hospital connected with it at present. They get no less than 38 per cent. of the total estimated expenditure.
Let us take the last two on the list. Dr. Steevens' Hospital has a deficiency of income of £4,600, and, towards that deficiency we give £1,300. The Royal Hospital for Incurables has a deficiency of £5,780 and we only give them £250. It is obvious that the conditions have altered since the Committee of the House of Commons of 1854 and the Commission of 1855 made their recommendations. The most startling case is the Cork Street Fever Hospital. I would like to say the Cork very quietly and the Street very loudly, for fear any Deputy would be afraid that I wanted to extract money for the Southern metropolis. In fact, in this connection I believe that this particular street was so named in the hope that the Corkmen whom some unkind fate compelled to reside temporarily in the Metropolis would come and live there, but, unfortunately, the supply of Corkmen was not equal to the demand, and premises became vacant there and they were converted into a hospital. The hospital has an estimated deficiency of income of just about £1,800—£1,782 to be very correct. To make up that deficiency of income we give them £2,500. Cork Street Hospital is living, I must say, most admirably up to its name, and it succeeds in making £700 a year. I do not want to prejudge the case before the Committee. It is quite possible that the £700 a year is paying off a deficit created before 1855.
There certainly does appear to be a case for inquiry by a Committee into this payment and also, as Deputy O'Kelly said, into the position of other Dublin hospitals doing equally valuable work. There are some hospitals that have small endowments. No doubt the fact that they had endowments was held to rule them out of consideration by the House of Commons Committee. But these endowments are not worth now what they were worth in 1854 and 1855. There are, to my certain knowledge, hospitals doing useful and valuable work that would have a claim to appear before the Commission and submit a case. They might possibly be found equally deserving of State support, just as much as any of the hospitals that appear on this list here. I would urge the Minister to fulfil his predecessor's pledge and set up either a Departmental Committee, a Commission, or a Committee of the Dáil. I am quite certain that we would get fair treatment from any one of them. I think there is a case for inquiry, because 1928 is not 1855. I do not suggest that we should reject this Estimate. Obviously the hospitals rely on the receipt of this money, and they should have very full notice and fair warning before we alter the amount paid to them—increase or decrease it. It is really a case for setting up a Committee to go into the whole matter de novo, particularly from the point of view of the circumstances in which we are living and the circumstances in which our grandfathers lived.
