§ MR. RIDSDALE (Brighton)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he is aware that an 911 annual grant of £15,850 to various Irish hospitals is divided according to an arrangement made over fifty years ago: whether the result of this ancient scheme is that one hospital (the Rotunda Lying-in Hospital) obtains an income above its expenditure; and whether, if the facts are as stated, he will consider the advisability of re-adjusting the grants.
(Answered by Mr. Birrell.) The fact is as stated in the first part of the Question. The Rotunda Hospital receives an annual grant of £700 from the Parliamentary grant of £15,850. I am informed that it is a mistake to suppose that the normal annual income of the hospital exceeds its expenditure. A large debt was incurred in recent years by the building, at a cost of over £8,000, of increased accommodation to provide for the great increase (nearly 40 per cent. in the last twelve years) of intern patients. For the reduction of this debt special donations have been given and secureties have been sold, and the annnal income of the hospital has thus been apparently increased. The last account of the hospital, namely, that for the year 1906–7, shows, however, that there was a balance due to the bank of £1,112, the deficit of estimated income in that year being £960. The Parliamentary Estimate for the year 1908–9 shows an estimated excess of expenditure over income, exclusive of the grant, of £672, and this is barely covered by the amount of the grant of £700. The estimated income, moreover, includes voluntary contributions and other items of a precarious character, amounting to over £3,000, which may not be fully realised. My hon. friend may not be aware that the Hospitals Commission, which, in 1887, reviewed the grants to all the Dublin hospitals participating in the Vote, described the Rotunda Hospital as pre-eminently a national institution worthy of support. Upon the facts as they have been reported to me, there do not appear to be any grounds for readjusting the Parliamentary grant to the detriment of this hospital.