asked the Minister for Health if his Department will bear the cost of the extension of the scheme of free travel, electricity allowances and free television licences to persons in receipt of disabled persons (maintenance) allowance which he announced on 28th January, 1977.

The cost of the extension of the scheme of free travel, electricity allowances and free television licences to persons in receipt of Disabled Persons (Maintenance) Allowances will be met from the Exchequer.

The mechanism for meeting this expenditure is currently under consideration. One option for meeting the costs would be to have the cost borne by the Department of Social Welfare. An alternative would be to have the cost met through the health boards.

A final decision has not yet been taken on the manner in which the cost will be met.

Can the Minister give an approximation of the annual cost involved?

For this particular scheme the cost is about £450,000 this year and about £600,000 per annum.

It is clear then that the cost of this extension, either by way of allowances or benefits will not come out of the health boards' allocations or, if the health boards must bear the extra cost involved, the amount will be added to their existing allocations?

The extension of the scheme will not impose an additional burden on the health boards.

In other words, whatever allocation they have will be increased to the extent necessary to enable these extra costs to be met?

Yes. The costs will be met by way of a Supplementary Estimate. As the Deputy will be aware, the Minister for Finance announced in his budget extra allocations for the Department of Health.

Will the Minister accept that there is some doubt among the ranks of the health boards as to whether they will be expected out of their existing allocations to meet the cost of this extension?

The cost will be met by way of Supplementary Estimate.