I move that the Bill be received for final consideration.
Royal Hospital for Incurables Dublin (Charter Amendment) Bill, 1952—Report Stage.
An Leas-Chathaoirleach
This legislation is being promoted by the hospital governors because they find that the financial position of the hospital is such that, unless additional revenue is obtained, they will be unable to carry on and the hospital will be obliged to close down.
The main purpose of the Bill is to empower the governors to admit a certain number of patients who will be nominated by local authorities and for whose maintenance in the hospital the local authorities will pay at an approved rate. This involves an amendment of the hospital's charter and the making of new by-laws. The by-laws must be approved by the three judges specified in Section 3 or by any one of them. They must also be submitted to the Minister for Health with a request that he should lay them before each House of the Oireachtas.
The Bill does not restrict the governors as to the number of local authority patients whom they will accept. This number will be specified in the by-laws, but, in the course of the discussions at the Committee, a figure of 30 per cent. was mentioned, and the representative of the hospital gave an assurance that such a limitation would be applied by the governors. In the light of that assurance a judge, before whom by-laws might be placed for approval, would have difficulty, I am sure, in approving them if they provided for the admission of any higher percentage of local authority patients.
It is not unlikely that experience will prove that unless a higher percentage than 30 is admitted and paid for as proposed, the revenues of the hospital would not be sufficient to enable the governors to carry on and if they were to be limited to this percentage the whole object of the Bill would be defeated. I think, therefore, the House should place it on record that, while it would like to see the public charitable character of the hospital maintained to the maximum practicable extent, there would be no objection, if at any future date the governors find it necessary on financial grounds to admit more than 30 per cent. of local authority patients, to their doing so.
There should, of course, be no effort to force the governors to accept a greater number of local authority patients than they wish to admit, and what I am now proposing would not in any way interfere with their discretion in that respect; but I think it would be very unwise to restrict them should the financial position of the hospital require that a higher number than the 30 per cent. mentioned at the Committee should be admitted.
Whilst I appreciate what the Minister has said, I think that, as the Joint Committee gave this matter their very careful consideration and that it was only after that consideration that they agreed to the Bill, as amended, the matter should be referred back to them so that the Joint Committee may give consideration to the Minister's statement. The Bill was amended, as agreed by the Committee, because some members took the view that no charge at all should be made and that the charter should not be amended. However, the matter was fully considered and the Committee decided to pass the Committee Stage of the Bill, slightly amended, on the undertaking, which was readily given by those in charge of the Bill, that only 30 per cent. of the bed accommodation would be charged for. What the Minister has in mind, of course, would mean that the hospital would be entitled to charge not only for one-third of the bed accommodation but for 50 per cent. of it or even for all the bed accommodation.
Whilst we appreciate very fully what the Minister has said, the Committee has given the matter very careful consideration and the members agreed with some reluctance to the amended Bill on the undertaking that only 30 per cent. of the accommodation would be charged for and it is in view of that that I wish to move as an amendment to the question before the House that the Bill be referred back to the Joint Committee for consideration of what the Minister has said.
I do not think that we may anticipate any great difficulty in obtaining from the Committee agreement to the measure, having regard to what the Minister has stated, and having regard to the maintenance of patients in local authority hospitals. The Committee considered the matter very fully and their only difficulty was in regard to the charge for 30 per cent. of the accommodation.
I take it that if that is done it will not involve the Committee in any further expenses by having to engage counsel again?
No, it is merely to enable the Joint Committee to reconsider the Bill in the light of the statement made by the Minister.
Question—"That the Bill be referred back to the Joint Committee"—put as an amendment to the main proposition and agreed to.