asked the Minister for Health whether he is aware that 35 out of a total of 100 beds in County Monaghan sanatorium are allocated to patients from County Louth, that this arrangement is a serious obstacle to the successful prevention and treatment of tuberculosis in County Monaghan and if he will arrange to have an early termination of this undesirable situation effected.
- County Monaghan Sanatorium.
I am aware under an agreement entered into between the health authorities for the Counties of Monaghan and Louth that not less than 35 out of a total of 106 beds in the tuberculosis hospital, Monaghan, are reserved for the treatment of patients from County Louth. As my information is that for several months past there was no patient in County Monaghan awaiting institutional treatment, it appears to me that this arrangement does not constitute a serious obstacle to the successful prevention and treatment of tuberculosis in the county. The last part of the question does not therefore arise.
I am in very close touch with that institution and I am afraid I must disagree entirely with what was conveyed to the Minister with regard to the adequacy of the bed accommodation, because it is my opinion from consultations and conversations with the officers there that the bed accommodation is barely adequate for County Monaghan.
I am afraid the Deputy has been misinformed. However, I will take up the matter again in view of these further representations. I am informed that there are no patients and have been no patients awaiting institutional treatment in County Monaghan for the last three months. In fact at the end of each of the months September, October and November, 1950, there were actually five, three and six vacant beds respectively in the Tuberculosis Hospital, Monaghan.