14/03/1924:

THE COUNTRY BOARDS OF HEALTH (ASSISTANCE) ORDER, 1924.

THE COUNTRY BOARDS OF HEALTH (ASSISTANCE) ORDER, 1924.

To every County Board of Health; to the Secretary, Superintendent and Assistant Officers of every County Board of Health; and to all whom it may concern:

IN pursuance of the powers vested in me by the Poor Relief (Ireland) Acts, 1838 to 1914, and the enactments amending the same, the Pauper Children (Ireland) Acts, 1898 and 1902, the Local Government (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1923 , and by every County Scheme made under or in pursuance of the said last mentioned Act, and of all powers in this behalf, enabling me, I, the Minister for Local Government, do by this my Order, subject to the provisions of every County Scheme, make and prescribe the following rules and regulations with respect to the administration of Home Assistance.

1. These rules and regulations may be cited as the County Boards of Health (Assistance) Order, 1924, and shall be read and construed as one with the County Boards of Health (General Regulations) Order, 1924, and shall come into operation on the First day of April, 1924.

2. The County Boards of Health (No. 1) Order, 1924, is hereby revoked in so far as the provisions thereof are inconsistent with or are repugnant to the provisions of this Order, but without prejudice to the validity of anything done or remaining to be done in pursuance of steps taken thereunder.

3. In this Order unless the context otherwise requires:—

(i) The expression "Board of Health" means a County Board of Health established under or in pursuance of a County Scheme made under or in pursuance of the Local Government (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1923 .

(ii) The expression "home assistance" means and includes relief given by a Board of Health in money, food or articles of absolute necessity, otherwise than in a County Institution, but does not include dispensary, medical or surgical assistance nor assistance afforded in connection with the burial of a poor person.

(iii) The expression "assistance officer" means a person duly appointed and authorised by a Board of Health to administer assistance under this Order.

(iv) The expression "person eligible for assistance" means a poor person who is unable by his own industry or other lawful means to provide for himself or his dependants the necessities of life.

(v) The word "County" includes a County Borough and the area of administration of a Board of Health.

(vi) The expression "orphan or deserted child" has the same meaning as in the Pauper Children (Ireland) Acts, 1898 and 1902.

(vii) The expression "the Minister" means the Minister for Local Government.

(viii) Other expressions have the same meaning as in a County Scheme.

HOME ASSISTANCE.

(4) Home assistance, except in cases of sudden and urgent necessity, shall not be allowed to any person eligible for assistance otherwise than in pursuance of an application duly made to the Board of Health or to an Assistance Officer.

5. A Board of Health shall not allow home assistance to any person eligible for assistance for a greater period than one month except in cases of permanent infirmity of mind or body, in which the Board shall be satisfied by medical certificate or other evidence that any such person is permanently disabled from maintaining himself or his dependants: provided that every such case shall be reviewed by the Board every three months.

6. Where a Board of Health allows home assistance to any able-bodied person one-half at least of such assistance shall be given in articles of food or fuel, or in other articles of absolute necessity, and the Board of Health may, at their discretion, require such person as a condition of the granting of such assistance to perform such suitable task or work as the Board may determine so long as such person shall continue to receive home assistance.

7. Home assistance shall not be allowed by a Board of Health to any able-bodied person who is regularly employed for wages or hire.

8. A Board of Health shall not:—

(a) establish any applicant for home assistance in any trade or supply him with the means of earning his own livelihood.

(b) redeem from pawn for any such applicant any tools, implements or other articles.

(c) purchase and give to such applicant any tools, implements or other articles, except articles of clothing and bedding where urgently needed.

(d) pay, directly or indirectly, the expenses of the conveyance of a poor person from one place to another, except in the case of a person conveyed to or from any county institution where the ordinary mode of conveyance by a vehicle provided by the Board of Health is not available.

(e) give any money to or on account of such applicant for the purpose of effecting any of the objects mentioned in this article.

9. The provisions of Articles 6 and 7 shall not apply in the following cases:—

(i) the case of a person receiving provisional home assistance on account of sudden and urgent necessity.

(ii) the case of a person receiving home assistance on account of any sickness, accident or bodily or mental infirmity affecting such person or any of his family.

(iii) the case of a widow with one child or more.

APPOINTMENT OF SUPERINTENDENT ASSISTANCE OFFICER.

10.—(1) A Board of Health shall appoint, subject to the approval of the Minister, an officer to be known as the Superintendent Assistance Officer to perform the duties hereinafter specified in relation to such office or by any Order of the Minister for the time being in force, or shall with the like approval assign such duties to the Secretary or other officer of the Board.

(2) Where a Board of Health appoints a person other than the Secretary or other officer of the Board to perform the duties of Superintendent Assistance Officer such person shall be required to satisfy the Minister by examination or otherwise according as the Minister shall direct of his qualifications and fitness for appointment, and no person shall be appointed to the office of Superintendent Assistance Officer unless such person has attained the age of thirty years and undertakes to devote his whole time to the performance of his duties; provided that every such appointment shall be probationary for one year, and the continuance of any person in such office after the expiration of such year shall be conditional on the Minister being satisfied that such person has satisfactorily performed the duties of his office during that year.

DUTIES OF SUPERINTENDENT ASSISTANCE OFFICER.

11. The duties of the Superintendent Assistance Officer shall be:

No. 1.—To attend all meetings of the Board of Health and to see that all lawful directions of the Board relating to the administration of home assistance are carried out.

No. 2.—To superintend generally the assistance officers in the discharge of their duties and to visit from time to time the district of each assistance officer either with or without notice to the officer and to inquire into the circumstances of persons in receipt of home assistance and to report thereon to the Board of Health and generally to see that the administration of home assistance is properly and lawfully carried out.

No. 3—To examine periodically and ascertain the correctness of the entries in, and to authenticate, if accurate, by his initials and the date, the various books required to be kept by the assistance officers and to see that such books are duly and properly kept; to report to the Board of Health any inaccuracies in such books and any negligence or improper conduct in the performance of their duties, and to take possession of and retain for production to the auditor all certificates and receipts for assistance in kind afforded by the assistance officers.

No. 4.—To furnish to the Board of Health once in each month a report on the duties performed by him and generally on the administration of assistance in each assistance district visited by him together with a summary of all visits of inspection made by him,

No. 5.—To receive, examine and investigate, if necessary, all applications for home assistance or for admission to any county institution forwarded to him by the assistance officers on the prescribed form, entitled the Application for Assistance, and to enter the particulars of every such application on the prescribed form, entitled the Home Assistance Application and Report Book (to be kept for each assistance district) and to submit the same to the Board of Health for their decision to be authenticated by the initials of the Chairman in the columns provided for that purpose in the said book and to notify the assistance officers on the prescribed form of the decision of the Board of Health.

No. 6.—To receive and investigate, if necessary, and to fill in the' required particulars on the report of any assistance officer on any provisional home assistance given by such officer and to give such directions in regard thereto as he shall think expedient until the next meeting of the Board of Health, or to order that such assistance shall be discontinued in any case that he considers proper, and to notify the assistance officer accordingly.

No. 7.—To fill in the particulars required to be inserted at the foot of the Form of Application for Assistance and to keep carefully the applications for assistance in such manner that each application is easily accessible and that a continuous record of the assistance afforded by the Board of Health to any person eligible for assistance shall be preserved.

No. 8.—To keep and punctually enter up the Home Assistance Register (Outdoor) for the whole of the county and at each ordinary meeting of the Board of Health to produce such register for the examination, correction or approval of the Board; to submit the same when so approved or corrected to the Chairman for his signature, and thereupon to countersign the same.

No. 9.—To keep and punctually enter up the Home Assistance List for each assistance district and to prepare and submit to the Board of Health at the close of each half-year the list of persons assisted out of county institutions in respect of the whole county.

No. 10.—To keep a cash book in a form similar to the Assistance Officer's Receipt and Expenditure Books for the whole of the county and to enter therein the particulars rendered in the statement of receipts and expenditure to be forwarded to him by each assistance officer.

No. 11.—To prepare and transmit to the Secretary of the Board of Health at the close of each month, in the prescribed form, the Abstract of the Accounts of the several assistance officers.

No. 12.—To prepare and transmit to the Secretary of the Board of Health at the close of each half-year a certified statement of the financial and statistical matters relating to assistance as are required by the Secretary for the purpose of closing his accounts and preparing the statistical and other portions of the Abstract of Accounts.

No. 13.—To visit periodically, or when directed to do so by the Board of Health, any cases in receipt of home assistance which the Board may direct him to visit, and to inquire when necessary or when directed by the Board of Health, into the circumstances of persons applying for home assistance or for admission to any county institution before their applications are considered by the Board of Health, and to make such inquiries as may be reasonable and proper as to the ability of the person to contribute towards the relief and maintenance of their relatives who have become chargeable to the county.

No. 14.—To visit, when required by the Board of Health, any children boarded out and to report thereupon to the Board.

No. 15.—To perform temporarily the duties of an assistance officer in any assistance district when so directed by the Board of Health or when any such officer is absent from duty through illness or other unavoidable cause.

No. 16.—To make inquiries when directed by the Board of Health as to whether any patient maintained in the District Mental Hospital at the public expense has property applicable to his maintenance, or relatives who are in a position to contribute to his support, and to report thereon to the Board of Health.

No. 17.—To perform such other duties as the Board of Health, with the consent of the Minister, may assign to him.

No. 18.—To execute all lawful orders which the Board of Health may give and which are applicable to his office.

APPOINTMENT OF ASSISTANCE OFFICERS AND ASSIGNMENT OF DISTRICTS.

12.—A Board of Health shall appoint, subject to the approval of the Minister in each case, such and so many assistance officers as the Minister shall direct or approve, and shall assign to each such officer such district to be known as an assistance district as the Minister shall direct or approve.

DUTIES OF ASSISTANCE OFFICERS.

13. The duties of every assistance officer shall be as follows:—

No. 1.—To attend such meetings of the Board of Health as the Board may require him to attend and to attend all other meetings when summoned by the Superintendent Assistance Officer.

No. 2.—To attend at such places in his district at such times of the day, and on such days in the week as the Board of Health shall, from time to time, direct, for the purpose of dispensing home assistance and of receiving applications for home assistance or for admission to any county institution.

No. 3.—To receive all applications for home assistance or for admission to any county institution made to him within his district, and forthwith to examine into the circumstances of every case by visiting the home of the applicant, and by making all necessary inquiries into the state of health, the ability to work, and the previous earnings and other means of such applicant; and to report the particulars of any such application and the result of such inquiries in the prescribed form entitled the Application for Assistance to the Superintendent Assistance Officer and to keep a duplicate of such report.

No. 4. —In every case of sudden and urgent necessity to afford such provisional assistance to a person eligible for assistance as may be necessary, that is to say:—

(a) If such person requires immediate treatment in hospital by conveying the person to a county hospital;

or

(b) by procuring in the prescribed form an order of admission to a county home signed by a member of the Board of Health or other authorised person and by conveying the person thereto if necessary;

or

(c) by affording such person temporary assistance in food, lodging, medicine, or medical attendance.

No. 5.—To report in the prescribed form to the Superintendent Assistance Officer every case in which he shall have granted provisional assistance and the nature of such assistance and to take the directions of such officer regarding any further assistance to be afforded in every case so reported until the next ordinary meeting of the Board of Health.

No. 6.—Duly and punctually to dispense the weekly allowances of all persons eligible for assistance belonging to his district; and to assist all such persons within his district as directed and authorised by the Board of Health and notified to him by the Superintendent Assistance Officer in the prescribed form entitled "the Assistance Officer's Authority for granting Assistance."

No. 7.—To keep a separate, full and true account of all sums and articles dispensed by him weekly for or on account of the assistance of each person eligible for assistance in his district, in the prescribed form, entitled the Assistance Officer's Expenditure Book.

No. 8.—To keep a separate, full and true account of all sums of money or articles received by him from the Board of Health and expended or dispensed by him on the account of his district, in the prescribed form, entitled the Assistance Officer's Receipt and Expenditure Book, and to balance the same weekly.

No. 9. To prepare and transmit to the Superintendent Assistance Officer on the Saturday of every week a statement in the prescribed form showing the receipts and expenditure for his district for the week ending on the preceding Friday.

No. 10.—To present the prescribed Book of Accounts, severally entitled the Assistance Officer's Expenditure Book and the Assistance Officer's Receipt and Expenditure Book, to the Superintendent Assistance Officer for his inspection and authentication from time to time as may be required.

No. 11.—In no case to take credit in his accounts or enter as paid or given any money or other articles which shall not have been paid or given previously to the taking of such credit or the making of such entry.

No. 12.—To submit to the Superintendent Assistance Officer and to the Auditor all his books, accounts, and vouchers at such time and place and in such a manner as may be required.

No. 13.—To keep a diary showing how he has been employed in the discharge of his duties on each day of the week and to submit the same to the Superintendent Assistance Officer for inspection as and when he shall be required.

No. 14.—To keep for the purpose of inspection and production at audit or to the Superintendent Assistance Officer an alphabetical index of all cases in which he shall have granted provisional assistance and of all applications for assistance made to him and to keep carefully in alphabetical or other suitable order the notifications of the decisions of the Board of Health received by him from the Superintendent Assistance Officer in regard to applications for assistance.

No. 15.—To observe and execute all lawful orders and directions of the Board of Health applicable to his office.

No. 16.—In the case of every child placed out at nurse or boarded out and placed under his supervision by the Board of Health to discharge the duty so assigned to him in accordance with the following regulations:—

(a) To see the child safely given over in charge to the person whom the Board of Health shall have selected for the purpose.

(b) To pay, in advance, or otherwise, as the Board of Health shall direct, but not less often than once in each month from the funds placed at his disposal for that purpose, the sums granted from time to time by the Board for the maintenance of the child.

(c) To cause the child, if not already successfully vaccinated, to be vaccinated by the medical officer of the Dispensary district in which the foster-parent resides.

(d) To visit the child once at least in every month, and also when any special occasion shall arise for visiting it, and to report in writing immediately thereafter to the Board of Health on its health, cleanliness, and treatment, together with such other particulars as the Board of Health shall at any time require.

(e) In the event of the death of the child, to take steps for its burial according to the directions of the Board of Health applicable generally to such cases and to report the circumstances of the death to the Board without delay.

REMUNERATION OF OFFICERS.

17. A Board of Health shall pay to the Superintendent Assistance Officer and Assistance Officers such salary or remuneration as the Minister may from time to time approve or direct and may, with the consent of the Minister, defray any of the out-of-pocket expenses actually and necessarily incurred by the said officers in the discharge of their duties under this Order.

CHILDREN.

18. A Board of Health shall not without the consent of the Minister place out at nurse or board out any child other than an orphan or deserted child.

19. The age up to which a Board of Health may place out at nurse or board out any orphan or deserted child shall be fifteen years, and any such child may be placed out at nurse or boarded out either within or without the limits of the area of administration of a Board of Health.

20. Every person with whom any such child shall be placed out at nurse or boarded out shall be of the religious persuasion in which the child is registered and shall be called the foster-parent, and shall, before receiving custody of the child, enter into a contract with the Board of Health in the form prescribed by the Minister, binding himself or herself, as the case may be, to observe all the conditions herein contained so long as the said child shall continue at nurse or be boarded out with such foster-parent.

21. The child shall be properly and sufficiently nursed or boarded, and shall be suitably lodged and clothed, and kept clean in its person by being washed once at least every day, and at all times when necessary, and the clothes provided shall not be of such shape or colour as may denote connection with any institution, and no child shall be nursed or boarded out in any house unless there is a woman living there who is of full age and has experience in the management of children.

22. If the child shall at any' time be suffering from illness or the effects of accident, medical relief shall be obtained for it in the manner provided by law at or from a dispensary of the dispensary district in which the foster-parent resides, and if the medical officer of such district shall advise its removal to hospital the foster-parent shall allow it to be so removed.

23. Before the signing of the said contract, the proposed foster-parent shall produce a recommendation signed by some clergyman, peace commissioner, member of a Board of Health, or medical officer residing in his or her neighbourhood who may be willing to answer for his or her good conduct and respectability.

24. Before the signing of the said contract the Board of Health shall satisfy themselves that the dwelling of the proposed foster-parent is in a healthy situation; that the house contains more than one room and admits of the sexes being completely separated; that a supply of pure and wholesome drinking water is at all times readily accessible to the inmates; that good food and milk are easily obtainable, and that there is a national school or other public school situate at a convenient distance from the dwelling.

25. There shall he inserted in the contract the precise terms of monthly payments to the foster-parent and such payment shall be exclusive of the cost of new clothing, or repairs of clothing, and of school fees, if any, for the child's education, which shall be separately provided by the Board of Health and the contract shall be sealed with the common seal of the Board of Health.

26. The number of children who may be boarded out with one foster-parent shall not exceed two, unless all the children so boarded out are children of the same parents, or unless in any particular case the Minister shall otherwise direct, and no child shall be boarded out with any person with whom children are boarded out by any person other than the Board of Health, or who keeps any pig, cow, horse, donkey or other such animal within the dwelling-house, or who keeps any manure-pit or accumulation of filth in dangerous proximity to the dwelling.

27. No child shall be placed out at nurse, boarded out or placed out at service with any person occupying or residing in a house or premises which are licensed for the sale of Intoxicating liquors by retail.

28. No child shall be boarded out in any town or village without the consent of the Minister.

29. The child shall be produced for inspection and examination at all reasonable times when required by the assistance officer or by any person having authority from the Minister or from the Board of Health to examine and inspect it.

30. The child shall be restored to the custody of the Board of Health and their officers at any time when the foster parent shall be required by the Board of Health to restore it.

31. The name of the child, together with the other particulars required by any Order under the seal of the Minister for the time being in force shall be placed on the Home Assistance Register (Outdoor) and on the Home Assistance List, and the sums expended in the assistance of all such cases shall be entered like other sums expended in home assistance in the Assistance Officer's Expenditure Book, and the expenses of assisting such a child, of conveying it to and from the home to a county institution or from one home to another, and of its burial in case of death, shall be charged under the head of home assistance, and entered in the accounts of the Board of Health accordingly, and in the case of burial service having been performed the expense thereof shall be charged and brought to account in like manner.

32. The child, when of sufficient age to attend school, shall, subject to the approval of a clergyman of the religious persuasion in which such child is registered attend the nearest national school, or shall, subject to the approval of the Board of Health and of such chaplain, attend some other public school, and a certificate of such attendance, signed by the teacher, and showing the days of absence (if any) shall be given to the assistance officer each month, provided that, if the school be not a national school, the child shall be examined annually by an Inspector of the Ministry of Education at a convenient time and place, and the result of such examination shall be reported to the Board of Health.

33. The child, shall, when of sufficient age, attend divine worship at the place of worship frequented by the foster parent and his or her family.

34. No child under twelve years of age shall be placed out at service, and every child placed out at service shall, so long as he or she is subject to authority of the Board of Health, be visited by the assistance officer at such times as the Board of Health shall appoint, and the assistance officer shall report after each visit as to the condition of the child, and as to the wages which he or she receives.

35. A Board of Health may appoint annually committees consisting of ladies who need not be members of the Board of Health, and such committees or any member thereof shall have full authority to visit any house in which a child, subject to the authority of the Board of Health, is placed out at nurse, boarded out or placed out at service and shall report to the Board upon such visit.

Given under my Seal of Office this Fourteenth day of

March, in the year of Our Lord One Thousand Nine

Hundred and Twenty-four.

(Signed SEUMAS DE BURCA.

Minister for Local Government.