§ 54. Sir JOHN LONSDALEasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland if he is aware that, although thousands of pounds of public money are being spent by the Women's National Health Association upon the Peamount sanatorium, the water supply of the place has been found to be insufficient in quantity and unfit for dietetic purposes; will he state who was the medical inspector of the Local Government Board who inspected the site and reported it to be suitable for a sanatorium, and why the inspector did not satisfy himself that there was a sufficient supply of pure water for a large institution before recommending the site; will he state approximately how much money has been spent in endeavouring to find water at Peamount; and whether he now considers that this sanatorium is fit for the reception of patients, seeing that all drinking water has to be carted a distance of two miles?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Peamount site was selected by the Women's National Health Association after it had been examined and most favourably reported upon by a well-known Dublin firm of architects and sanitary engineers and subsequently inspected by three eminent Dublin physicians who endorsed and confirmed the report. The Local Government Board were not asked to send a medical inspector prior to the decision to select the site; but ever since the actual commencement of works of construction these have been frequently inspected by officers of the Local Government Board and no payments from public funds have been made except after being duly submitted to the Board and authorised thereby. The water supply, on investigation, is found unsuitable for dietetic purposes, but the sinking of a well which will yield, it is believed, 1410 an adequate supply of water for all purposes is now progressing. The sanction of the Local Government Board to the opening of the institution as a whole will be given when a thoroughly satisfactory water supply for a large establishment of the kind has been obtained, and not before; but owing to the urgency which was the primary consideration for the establishment of the sanatorium, the Board's Inspectors have felt justified in recommending that during the sinking of the well a limited number of patients should be admitted for whom a supply of drinking water of the most excellent quality can be provided from a spring outside the property, the necessary arrangements having been made for this purpose. I am informed that the expenditure incurred in connection with the water supply at present is well under £200.
§ Sir J. LONSDALECould the right hon. Gentleman say what distance this spring is from the sanatorium?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe spring, I believe, is about two miles distant.
§ Sir J. LONSDALEIs it proposed that all the supply should be obtained from a spring two miles away?
§ Mr. BIRRELLCertainly not. The sanatorium, as I have already said, will not be certified as a fit and proper place until there is an ample and sufficient water supply which can be used for all proper purposes and at once.
§ Sir J. LONSDALEWhy did the Local Government Board not get their own medical advisers to report upon the water supply before any grant was given to this association?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe site had already been properly examined to the satisfaction of the Local Government Board by experts in Dublin. This supply of water from the well is no doubt insufficient for the sanatorium as a whole, although there is no difficulty whatever in obtaining it, and it is by all accounts about the best water that can be obtained in the district. The Peamount Sanatorium will not be certified to its full amount until the difficulty of the water supply has been got over, if that has not already been done.
§ Mr. SWIFT MacNEILLMay I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether it is not a fact that even now, under present conditions, no fewer than 800 gallons per diem can be got from this well and conveyed to the sanatorium?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThere is no difficulty about it.
§ Mr. SWIFT MacNEILLNone whatever.
§ Mr. FLAVINMay I ask whether those two wells are more vital, in the hon. Baronet's opinion, than the treatment of consumptive patients?
§ Mr. MOOREIs it not a fact that this place was bought by this political-philanthropic association, and then, for political reasons, the Government gave this private association £25,000 to help them out of a bad bargain?
§ Sir J. LONSDALEIs the right hon. Gentleman aware?—
§ Mr. SPEAKERThe hon. Member had better put down any further questions.
§ Sir J. LONSDALEIt is a very important question, Sir.
§ Mr. SPEAKERIf it is important, that is all the more reason why it requires notice.