I beg to move:—
Section 21, sub-section (4), page 11. To add at the end of the sub-section the words "and shall act as Local Government Inspector in connection with the administration of county hospitals, county homes, mental hospitals and dispensaries in the area assigned to him.
This amendment seeks to do away with redundant officers and officials. At present I understand these institutions are inspected by a staff of some 17 lay inspectors and 10 medical inspectors. Under the Bill there will be a new office created, that is, the office of County Medical Officer of Health, and the amendment proposes that within his jurisdiction and area he shall act as Local Government Inspector for all these institutions. That is on the administrative side of these institutions. In addition to the lay inspectors and the medical inspectors, there is a staff of auditors. I do not propose to impose any of the duties of the auditors on the medical officers, but only to appoint them Local Government inspectors so far as the administrative side of these institutions is concerned. I do not think that would inflict any great extra burden on these men who will be highly qualified men, seeing that at present similar duties with regard to mental hospitals, of which there are 20 in the Free State, are carried out by one official. One official, I believe, is competent to inspect and supervise the administrative side of the 20 mental hospitals in the Free State. Generally speaking, I think there is and should be a disposition to cut down as far as possible, the clerical staffs and the inspecting staffs of the various departments, in the first place in the interests of economy, and in the next place to reduce overlapping and redundancy.
Under the present system we have one of the medical inspectors going down to-day to a dispensary and inspecting under the Medical Charities Act. To-morrow you have a lay inspector going down to inspect under the Public Health Act. These are all highly paid officers of the central authority, and their travelling expenses and hotel expenses are going on all the time. At the time of taking the latest return, I find that we had a staff of inspectors for the Free State of fortythree, whereas for the whole of Ireland under the old régime we had only about the same, or one or two less. That seems to require looking into, and this is the first move that I propose, at any rate, in the direction of making an effort to help to put down these highly expensive, redundant, and over-lapping services. You will do away, by this amendment, with your seventeen lay inspectors. The ten medical inspectors might get the option of taking counties that may be assigned to them as County Medical Officers of Health. They can still retain their inspectorial capacity, under the Local Government Department, and then, simply instead of seventeen lay inspectors, you appoint additional County Medical Officers of Health for the twenty-six counties. You have to-day between lay inspectors and medical inspectors, twenty-seven inspectors, and under the new order, proposed in this amendment you will have twenty-six county officers taking the place of these and doing the double duty. That will be a difference of one, and I am sure you will require one or two more in order to act as relieving officers for County Health Officers in the case of sickness or otherwise.
