§ 14. Mr. SWIFT MacNEILLasked the Chief Secretary whether the statement recently made by one of the Local Government Board inspectors at a meeting of the Tyrone County Council, to the effect that a sanatorium for twenty-five or thirty patients could be erected at a cost of about £1,200, is to be taken as referring only to the cost of the actual structure, without including such necessary items as water supply, drainage, lighting, heating, equipment, and so forth; and, if so, will he authorise an explanation to that effect, in view of the fact that the above-mentioned statement has caused doubt and dissatisfaction on the part of various county councils, because of the impression which that statement has created that the scale of charges which they have agreed to for insured patients at existing sanatorium is higher than it ought to have been?
§ Mr. BIRRELLThe Local Government Board have communicated "with their medical inspector of the district, and he states that he has no recollection of having made such a statement as that indicated in the question. The Board and their inspectors have always recognised that a sanatorium complete in all its details could not be erected at such a low figure as £40 a bed.