The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Local Government and Public Health is here representing the Minister, who cannot be present. I am sure the House would wish to hear him on the Second Stage of this Bill.
Agreed.
School Meals (Gaeltacht) Bill, 1933 (Certified Money Bill)—Second Stage.
Cathaoirleach
Question proposed: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."
The purpose of this Bill is to amend the School Meals (Gaeltacht) Act, 1930, so as to secure that as far as possible the sum of £10,000 provided by the Oireachtas under that Act will be available for the recoupment of those local authorities which have shown the greatest readiness to apply the Act to the fullest extent to their districts. As the members of the Seanad are doubtless aware, the School Meals (Gaeltacht) Act, 1930, authorises certain boards of health to provide meals for children attending schools in portions of the Gaeltacht scheduled under the Act. The expenditure incurred by these authorities from the rates for the provision of food for such meals is recoupable from a State Grant to the extent of one-half. The Act of 1930, however, provides that the aggregate recoupment from the State Grant to all these local authorities in respect of any financial year shall not exceed a sum of £10,000. In order to apply this overriding maximum of recoupment to each local authority concerned, it is necessary in pursuance of the Act to allocate this £10,000 between the districts of these authorities in proportion to the average annual school attendances in the areas scheduled under the Act in each district. The effect of this allocation is to earmark a fixed portion of the £10,000 to each such district as the maximum amount of recoupment which can be paid in respect of a financial year to the local authority at the usual rate of 50 per cent. on their expenditure. In illustration of this, I might point out that if the amount earmarked from the £10,000 to a local authority were £2,000, and the local authority spent during a financial year not more than £4,000 on the provision of food for school meals, the recoupment payable to such authority would be one-half of the actual amount expended. If, however, the amount spent by the local authority exceeded £4,000 the recoupment payable would only be the fixed amount of £2,000 no matter how much was expended in excess of £4,000.
The local authorities administering the Act are the boards of health in Cork, Donegal, Galway, Kerry, and Mayo counties. Some of these boards have shown great readiness in availing of the provisions of the Act to the fullest extent while others are not inclined to levy a sufficient rate to earn the full amount of the State Grant earmarked for their districts. In Galway County, on account of the poverty of the inhabitants in the scheduled areas in Connemara, the board of health have found it necessary to provide school meals during the entire school year, winter and summer. Moreover, the average cost of the meals in that county is increased by the fact that the schools are smaller and more widely scattered than elsewhere. In addition there is greater difficulty in obtaining supplies locally and the cost of transport is higher. The Galway Board of Health, have, therefore, been obliged by these circumstances to incur expenditure in excess of the amount for which they could receive 50 per cent. recoupment from the amount of the State Grant allocated to their district. The amount allocated to that district from the Grant of £10,000, in respect of the year 1932-3, was £2,451 8s. 10d., whereas during that year the board expended on the provision of food in school meals £7,199 13s. 9d., which at the usual rate of 50 per cent. recoupment would entitle them to a reimbursement of £3,599 16s. 10d. But the maximum recoupment available, as above shown, was £2,451 8s 10d., which left the board with a deficiency of £1,148 8s. in respect of recoupment.
On the other hand, the Donegal Board of Health have declined to expend more than the proceeds of a rate of approximately 1½d. in the £. on the provision of school meals in their district, and in the year 1932-3 their total expenditure for the purpose was £3,205 8s. 11d. in respect of which they received £1,602 14s. 5d. as recoupment. The amount earmarked for their district from the State Grant of £10,000 was £3,423 3s. 7d., so that the balance of £1,820 9s. 2d. was returned to the Exchequer as unexpended. Small surpluses were also returned from the Cork, Mayo and Kerry districts, so that in respect of the year 1932-3 a total unexpended balance of £2,628 4s. 0d. out of the grant of £10,000 was returned to the Exchequer.
The aim of the present Bill is to ensure that such unexpended balances may be made available to meet any deficiency in recoupment from the State Grant in a district in which the local authority has incurred the necessary expenditure to give full effect to the provisions of the Act of 1930.
It is unnecessary for me to refer to the benefits conferred by a hot school meal on children who have to travel long distances on foot in all seasons to attend school. School managers and teachers generally have shown their appreciation of these meals, and it is only through their willing cooperation that the arrangements can be successfully carried out. County medical officers of health, as a result of medical inspection of the school children, have testified to the favourable effect of the school meals on the health and physical development of those children. It is, therefore, only fitting that local authorities who are willing to expend their money in promoting these arrangements should be encouraged by receiving their due measure of recoupment from the State Grant.
I wish to support this Bill. I think the Bill is very desirable from a public health point of view as well as from an educational point of view. School meals for school children have been permissible for the last nineteen years. I think that the first Act was in 1914 and that it was extended in 1916 and 1917, but this Act, which gives a Government Grant, and which has been in existence now for two or three years, has not been fully availed of. I think that what the Parliamentary Secretary suggests might be very desirable in inducing those local authorities which have not spent to the full extent to go further and to expend it rather than see the portion of the grant which would be available for them going to some other local authority. For that reason I have much pleasure in supporting the Bill.
Question put and agreed to.
Committee Stage ordered for Thursday, 7th December.