Committee Reports::Report and Proceedings - Poor Law Relief::27 June, 1929::Report


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Committee Reports > List of Committees > Seanad > 1929 > Special Committee on Poor Law Relief > Report and Proceedings - Poor Law Relief

REPORT.

The Committee reports that:—

The powers of the Commissioners acting for the Guardians of the Poor in the Poor Law Unions of Dublin City and County have not been altered by recent legislation.

The classes of persons to whom out-door relief may be granted are set out in Section 1 of the Poor Relief (Ireland) Act, 1847, viz.:—

(a) Persons permanently disabled by old age and infirmity.

(b) Persons temporarily incapacitated by illness or accident.

Section 2 of the same Act provides for the relief of other classes in the event of no accommodation being available in the workhouse.

Section 13 of the Local Government Act, 1898, provides for the relief of able-bodied persons outside the workhouse in the event of exceptional distress.

The statutory limitations upon Boards of Guardians affecting the grant of out-door relief to able-bodied persons, to widows with less than two legitimate children, etc., which, in places where a County Scheme is in operation, were removed by Section 10 of the Local Government (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1923, are still effective in the County Borough of Dublin and the County of Dublin where no County Schemes as defined by the Act have yet been formulated and adopted.

The Committee understands that negotiations have been opened with the object of securing the adoption of a scheme jointly by the Council of County Dublin and the Commissioners for the County Borough of Dublin. The Committee, however, is of opinion that the needs of the case require that the powers of the Guardians for the Dublin Unions should be enlarged without delay and therefore recommend to the Senate that legislation should be passed without delay providing that:—

Pending the adoption of a County Scheme the Guardians of the Poor for the Dublin Unions shall have and exercise all the powers and duties for granting outdoor relief which they would have and exercise under Section 10 of the Local Government (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1923 (No. 9 of 1923), if a County Scheme had been adopted and was in operation.

P. W. KENNY.

Chairman of the Special Committee.