§ Mr. O'LEARYasked the Chief Secretary for Ireland whether he is aware that the finances of the Cork Borough Insurance Committee, under the National Health Acts, have proved wholly inadequate to meet the demands upon them, owing to the number of insured persons, requiring treatment in the local sanatorium and other institutions; that several insured persons in the advanced stage of tuberculosis have been recommended for treatment by the committee, but cannot obtain the same owing to the lack of funds; that the majority of those persons are obliged to reside with their families in crowded slum areas, and that the medical officers of the borough declare that the lack of segregation of such cases is a danger to public health, and entirely opposed to the objects for which Section 16 of the Insurance Act, 1911, was passed; whether the insurance committee of Cork borough claim capitation allowances in respect of 26,000 insured persons, and are only credited with allowances in respect of 18,000; whether the Irish Commissioners will explain the divergence between the figures claimed for and those upon which the allowances are based; and whether the Irish Commissioners, in the case of the Cork borough and other committees similarly badly off for funds, intend to take steps to obtain a special Grant to enable those bodies to carry out their duties and obligations to insured persons, and especially to enable them to obtain the services of a qualified nurse for Cork borough to visit and attend those insured persons who have returned from or are about to be sent for institutional treatment?
§ Sir E. CORNWALLI am aware of the difficulties referred to by my hon. Friend, but I must remind him that, in addition to the funds made available by Parliament 1183W under the National Insurance Acts for the treatment of insured persons suffering from tuberculosis, other funds have been made available by Parliament to local authorities undertaking, in agreement with insurance committees, a comprehensive scheme of treatment for all the tuberculous persons in their area, whether insured or uninsured. But I am informed that so far no such comprehensive scheme has been adopted in Cork. I am asking the Irish Commission to send my hon. Friend a note explaining the basis upon which the Cork Insurance Committee's credits (to which he refers in the question) are calculated. With regard to the last part of the question, I am in communication with the Treasury on the subject of the diminution of sanatorium benefit income which insurance committees are suffering owing to war conditions.