asked the Minister for Health what the total additional cost was in the financial year 1959-60 of the services provided under the Health Act, 1953, compared with the cost of the health or ancillary services previously provided.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Cost of Health Services.
15.
Accounts are not kept separately by local authorities in regard to expenditure on additional or extended services provided under the Health Act, 1953, and, consequently, it is not possible to supply the information requested by the Deputy.
The Deputy will appreciate that the 1953 Act, in addition to providing for services for persons who were not previously entitled to such services, provided a revised statutory basis for services previously provided for under other legislative codes. Examples of such services are the dispensary service, hospital and specialist services for the former public assistance group, boarding-out of children, maintenance of poor persons in county homes, the school health examination service and supply of milk for expectant and nursing mothers.
As the statutes under which the health services are provided form a joint code, separate accounts are not kept in relation to services provided under the Health Act, 1953, nor in relation to expenditure in respect of the different classes of persons entitled to those services.
Surely somebody had to pay for the services prior to 1953?
Somebody had.
It worked out at more than two shillings in the pound.