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APPENDIX XII.LODGING ALLOWANCES OF MARRIED MALE ATTENDANTS AT DUNDRUM CRIMINAL LUNATIC ASYLUM.1. The earliest authority that can be traced for the payment of lodging allowances to married Male Attendants who were not provided with official quarters is dated 9th March, 1912. Under this authority the allowances were increased from 3/6 to 5/- a week and were payable irrespective of whether the weekly rent was greater or less than 5/-. 2. A later authority, dated 4th February, 1920, revised the lodging allowances payable, and as from 1st February, 1920, applied to the Dundrum Asylum Married Male Attendants the rates and conditions laid down for Prison Warders of corresponding rank in Dublin. Subject to the condition that the amount of allowance did not exceed the cost of accommodation, the new arrangement authorised the payment of allowances up to a maximum of 10/6 a week. 3. The Asylum Attendants referred to at paragraph 25 of the Comptroller and Auditor-General’s report on the Appropriation Accounts for 1935-36 are five in number. Their Conditions of Service, which they accepted in writing, provided, inter alia, for the payment of lodging allowances of (a) 3/6 (three cases) and (b) 5/- (two cases) a week to married Attendants with not less than five years’ service. It should be explained that at the dates of appointment of the three Attendants at (2) the 3/6 rate of allowance had disappeared (vide paragraph 1 above) but, probably through an oversight, the amount was not altered in the printed form of Conditions of Service. Each of the five Attendants may, therefore, be regarded as conditioned to a lodging allowance of 5/-a week as a minimum. 4. The five Asylum Attendants in question, who resided in houses built by the Irish Soldiers and Sailors Land Trust, ceased to pay rent to the Trust from 29th July, 1933, following a decision of the Saorstát Courts in an action brought to determine the relation between the Trust and persons who occupied houses built by the Trust. It is understood that the Attendants continue to pay rates on the houses they occupy. 5. Immediately prior to the cessation of the rent payments as described above, four of the Asylum Attendants referred to in the foregoing paragraphs were paid lodging allowances of 10/6 a week and the fifth 9/- a week. In view of the facts (a) that the five Attendants ceased to be liable for rent and (b) that the allowance payable in any one case should have been related, subject to a minimum of 5/- a week, to the rent payable, the Minister for Finance is definitely of opinion that the allowances in these cases should have been reviewed as from the 29th July, 1933, when the Courts gave judgement. This was not done and the allowances at the higher rates fixed on the basis that the Attendants actually paid rent were continued up to 27th August, 1936, when the payments were queried by the Comptroller and Auditor-General. 6. Having regard to all the circumstances and in view of the Conditions of Service the Minister for Finance sees no reason why, as from the 29th July, 1933, lodging allowances in excess of 5/- a week should be paid in any of the five cases in question. On this basis the officers concerned will have been overpaid a total of £150 (approximately). The amounts to be recovered will range from £20 to £32 approximately. The necessary steps to effect recovery will be taken as soon as the views of the Public Accounts Committee are available. Roinn Airgid. Iúl, 1937. |
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