Yes, but we have put it up several times to the county manager. What is wrong? The county manager is not compelling the other people under his control to do the job. In different places throughout the country these engineers, or Deputy engineers, or whatever you like to call them, instead of working for those who pay them, are carrying on a private business or looking after the farm. That is how the cottage repairs are being carried out. The poor people are suffering because the engineers are not made do their duty either by the Minister or the people under him, the county managers.
There is one great scandal in this State. I may not be in order in introducing it here. We hear a lot of talk about local Government and public health but, throughout this island, we have many people in bad health, married and single men, trying to exist on 15/- a week. Many of them are obliged to remain in bed through illness. When will we improve that state of affairs? I was informed in the House a fortnight ago that the funds of the society amount to £4,700,000. The people who are in delicate health receive just the same benefits as when the Act was put into operation by Lloyd George. The same amount of money is still being paid although the cost of living has gone up by leaps and bounds. What good would 15/- a week be to a sick man with a young family? How can any man with an income of only 15/- a week pay rent, buy milk, send the youngsters to school and get them books? Probably the children have no boots because, in rural areas, you cannot keep footwear on youngsters who have to travel over the bad roads, walking two or three miles to school. That is a great evil and it will have to be remedied. When a person is in need, that is the time that he requires help. There is no use in spending money on social services if we cannot give it to the people most in need of it.
The Minister told us about the increase in the number of births and how many youngsters were born in Dublin. We did not hear how many have died in sanatoria and outside sanatoria in the Twenty-six Counties. There are 123,000 old people in receipt of 10/- a week. They include the fathers and mothers of the men who fought in 1916 and these poor old people receive only 10/- a week from the State. Many of these old men and their sons risked their lives then, but to-day the old people receive only 10/- a week with, in some cases, supplementary allowances. We should consider the plight of people who have given such service to the State. Across the Channel and in the Six Counties old age pensions have been increased. We should increase pensions here to a reasonable level because those old people deserve every consideration. We seem to be able to find money for everything, but we ignore the old and feeble.
The road workers were referred to in the course of this debate. As a worker, I believe the road workers should be paid weekly. If a man gets his money every week, his wife will be able to balance her budget better than by having to go to the shopkeeper with her book. He can always add a halfpenny or a penny when she has not the money to pay for an article. It is suggested that one reason why road workers are not paid weekly is that they are ashamed to present their cheques for the one week, the amount is so small, and it looks better when they can give a fortnight's cheque to the shopkeeper. Before the change in management, urban council workers were paid in cash. They are now paid by cheque. We are told it would cost too much to pay men by the week. Under the present system cheques are sent out to 500 or 600 road workers and they have to pay 2d. when the cheques are being cashed.
I believe the Department could establish a more satisfactory system. We have a lot of engineers, an engineer nearly for every area. On Friday or Saturday engineers could go to different places where the men are grouped and pay them in cash in a little bag, such as one sees in Britain or among larger employers. Let the engineer of the area be responsible and get the men to sign when they are paid. That would be very simple and it would not cost anything. If such a system were introduced it would be very satisfactory for the workers. The value of the £1 to-day is very small. Workers in the country are waiting from week to week to get paid. They have nothing in their pockets, not even the price of a smoke. They have to get many things on credit. The cheque is absorbed paying back what they owe and they have to go for another fortnight on credit. If these workers happen to get sick inside the fortnight they would have nothing to meet medical expenses. These men are forever in debt; they will never be able to clear themselves.
We have enough of county council officials and enough of engineers. The work of paying the men could be allotted to an engineer in each area. He could bring out the men from the quarries and the roads and pay them in cash and get them to sign their names. In that way there cannot be any mistakes.
I do not at all agree with the type of house Deputy Corish suggested. We do not want that type of house at all. This contractor in Wexford suggested to the county council that he could build a house for £370. He promised to erect one every day or every week. That type of house is called the Athy type, a lean-to with an asbestos roof, a cold, miserable little house. We want decent houses for the people. On the other hand I do not agree with the erection of houses which are so expensive that the working man cannot afford to pay the rent. In Dublin here unfortunate people are being "reefed" by landlords. If a high rent is charged for a house it is a millstone around the workman's neck. If he falls into arrears for a few weeks and there is no one to guarantee the payment of the rent, the man gets notice from the rent collector. He is brought into court, the local authority gets a decree and the man is thrown out on the road. That has happened in the case of people who have been taken out of the slums. They were taken out of houses the rent of which they could afford to pay and put into bigger houses and finally they were thrown on the roadsides.
We hear a lot of talk about clearing slum areas, but in country towns we find that under some of the new housing schemes, houses are built in back alleys. One hundred or 150 houses are grouped together with the result that one is overlooking the backyard of the other. The final effect will be the creation of even worse slums in these areas than those from which the people originally came. Families are gradually growing up in these houses with the result that congestion is becoming very acute. Goodness knows, there is plenty of land in the country, sufficient at least to allow of some little allotment for each house, so as to ensure some privacy for the tenants of these houses. There are several badly planned schemes of this character in country towns.
I have in mind one instance where 40 houses were built in a field. Instead of putting 20 houses on each side of the road the houses were erected in such a way that a concrete road which was constructed in the middle of the scheme had no exit. The road was a dead-end so that when a doctor or a clergyman visited the area with a car he found that he could scarcely get out of it. I am not blaming the Minister for that because I know it is the fault of the engineer who designed the scheme, but I think that when schemes are submitted to the Department every feature of them should be given proper consideration—the lay-out of the houses, the roads, sewerage, etc. If that were done, it would result in a saving in the long run.
I saw a statement made by Deputy Allen at the Wexford County Council and published in the Herald last night that it was not the duty of public authorities to provide pumps. I think that wherever local authorities erect labourers' cottages it is the duty of the local authority to provide water for the cottages. Pumps are required all over the County Wexford but we are going to erect only six this year. We have to pay an analyst a guinea every time samples of good water are submitted for analysis but no thought is given to people in the country areas who are dependent on wells on the side of the road to which cattle have access. Very often these wells are in a field in which cattle are grazing and the water is open to contamination in the same way. Is it any wonder that disease is spreading? If we are going to have a healthy nation, we must provide proper sanitation and pure water is the great essential in the country.
The Minister spoke of the number of beds to be provided in hospitals throughout the country. At the moment, patients who have not recovered their health are being rushed out of hospitals, even out of tuberculosis hospitals. They are driven out in order to let somebody else in for a few days more. One matter to which the Minister should give some consideration is the food provided in sanatoria, to ensure that it is of the best quality and that it is prepared under proper supervision. I believe that the doctors should inspect the food regularly to ensure that it is properly cooked and that it is fit for consumption by patients afflicted with weak stomachs. I visit the local sanatorium in my area very often. What are the conditions there? At 4 o'clock on a Sunday or a Thursday evening after all the patients' relations have been put out, tea is served to the patients. I do not believe that even a healthy man could enjoy that tea. Why does the Minister not make some provision so that tuberculous patients will get white bread instead of the present unpalatable brown bread and to ensure that they will get properly cooked food? The councils are paying for the proper treatment of these people and the Minister should see to it that they get proper care. I have in mind some cases in these institutions where the only allowance a man gets is 7/6 or perhaps 15/- a week. The greatest worry of the patient is how his wife and family at home are going to exist whilst he is invalided. The people in these hospitals are unable to speak for themselves and it is the duty of the Government and of the local authority to see that they get justice and fair play, not to speak of good treatment. Otherwise all this expenditure to combat tuberculosis is in vain.
I should like the Minister to insist that in future no doctor attached to these institutions will be allowed to live 14 or 15 miles away from the sanatorium and go there whenever he likes. The doctor is being paid a good salary and if at all possible he should be compelled to live near the institution. In the Brownswood Sanatorium there is a very nice house in which the previous doctor lived. What happened? Because some of the bedding and one or two patients were at one time accommodated in that private house, no doctor will now live in it. The house is there vacant. If the Minister sends down any of his inspectors, I will show him the home where the late Dr. O'Connor lived. The house is vacant ever since and the county medical officer lives in Wexford, 14 miles away. There is also a lady doctor going there whenever she thinks well of it. That is a system that must be changed. It is only by going into these places and speaking to the patients that one can find out what is happening and how they are treated. I suppose that in a short time a new doctor will be appointed in Wexford. The present doctor resigned last Monday. He is coming to Dublin to a Department job. The Minister should see that the doctor for the county should, if possible, live where the institutions are, and in Enniscorthy we have three institutions—the county home, the mental hospital and the sanatorium.
The sum of £43,000 is being provided for medical treatment for children. I have youngsters myself attending school. Of course, since I got into the Dáil I would not expect them to get this treatment, but even before that I never saw them get any treatment except that the dentist might look at their teeth. There is a grant for milk for children, but a person has to go through the means tests before he can get a half-pint of milk. As regards the footwear for poor children, that scheme should be administered solely on behalf of people who are in need. The position is that you have people taking advantage of this boot scheme who are not entitled to do so. They apply for vouchers and they deceive the relieving officer by not giving their correct wages. The result is that they get boots and that poor people on the dole and on home assistance are done out of the boots.
I would say that the system of giving out these boots ought to be improved. I approve of the form which has been issued by the Dublin Board of Assistance. On it a man has to state his wages and the employer has to sign it as well. The position in some towns now is that you have people getting these boots who are not entitled to them, with the result that deserving people cannot get them.
Supplementary grants are being provided for home assistance. From all sides in the Dáil a good deal is said about doles and home assistance. I think that no one is going to look for home assistance if he can possibly avoid it. The applicant will not get what would buy a dinner for him in Dublin—2/6 or 4/-. If he is a man with a family, he gets a docket for 8/- What good is that for a family? There is no doubt whatever that every other day you have extra people going on home assistance. What is really happening is that poor people are in a state of semi-starvation, not alone in the country but even here in this city. I have seen youngsters in the slums around Mountjoy Street running around without boots or clothes on them. How long is this Catholic State and this Christian Government that we are told about going to look on at that? At the same time we are very liberal in bringing over German children.
