asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health if he has received proposals from the manager of Portrane and Grangegorman Mental Hospitals for an increase in pay to the staff; if he is prepared to sanction this increase, and if so, if he will state if it will apply to all members of the staff, from the medical staff to the labouring staff; and further, if he is aware that if this increase is not agreed to, the staff in both hospitals will cease work which will result in a very serious situation in these institutions.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Remuneration of Mental Hospital Staffs.
Proposals were received on 12th ultimo for the grant of increased scales of salaries to attendants and mental nurses in the employment of the Grangegorman Mental Hospital Board. I informed that authority on 20th idem that while I was prepared to accord approval to the proposals I was gravely concerned to observe the very frequent references at meetings of the authority and elsewhere to the possibility of strike action and in particular the decision of certain members of the staff to serve strike notice. I pointed out that the nursing staff of a mental hospital are charged with a very special duty; that they are responsible for the care and welfare of a particularly helpless and afflicted class of patient and the special qualities and training required from them pre-suppose a high sense of professional duty and responsibility; and that I was reluctant to believe that responsible members of the staff would be so lacking in their sense of duty to the mental hospital authority and of obligation to the patients under their charge that they would deliberately contemplate a withdrawal of their services. I made clear the serious consequences to the mental nursing staff which would follow in the event of a strike and I stated that I was prepared to convey approval to the proposals submitted by the manager, provided that all threat of strike action was withdrawn forthwith. Satisfactory assurances were subsequently received in this connection and formal sanction to the proposals was expressed in a letter of 8th instant.
No proposals for an increase in the remuneration of other members of the mental hospital staff have been received.
asked the Miniter for Local Government and Public Health if he has received a copy of a resolution of the Cork Mental Hospital Board asking sanction for the payment of a supplementary wage bonus of 5/- a week to all employees, as set out in the manager's order number 1088; and if he will now sanction this proposal, for which financial provision has been made by the board.
The resolution was received. The maximum rates of emergency bonus which it is the practice to approve in such cases were sanctioned.