Health Act, 1953

Shelter and maintenance in county home.

54.—(1) In this section “institutional assistance” means shelter and maintenance in a county home or similar institution.

(2) A person who is unable to provide shelter and maintenance for himself or his dependants shall, for the purposes of this section, be eligible for institutional assistance.

(3) It shall be the duty of a health authority, subject to and in accordance with the provisions of this section and the regulations thereunder, to give to every person in their functional area who is eligible for institutional assistance such institutional assistance as appears to them to be necessary or proper in each particular case.

(4) The Minister may make regulations governing the giving of institutional assistance and such regulations may, in particular, provide for requiring persons to contribute in specified cases towards the cost of providing them with institutional assistance.

(5) Every person maintained by a health authority in a county home or similar institution who behaves in a disorderly manner in such home or institution, or causes unreasonable disturbance to other persons maintained in such home or institution or to persons employed therein, shall be guilty of an offence under this subsection and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof to imprisonment for a term not exceeding twenty-one days.

(6) Where the Minister directs by order that a specified class of persons shall not be sheltered or maintained under this section by or on behalf of a health authority in a specified institution, the authority shall not (except in cases of urgent necessity) shelter or maintain, or arrange for the shelter or maintenance of, any persons of that class in that institution.

(7) (a) Where a person maintained by a health authority in a county home or similar institution does work on behalf of the authority, he shall be deemed, in relation to the doing of the work, to be for the purposes of the Workmen's Compensation Acts, 1934 to 1953, a workman in the employment of the authority, but, save as aforesaid, the doing of the work by such person shall not operate to create or imply the relation of master and servant or a contract of service between the authority and such person.

(b) In any proceedings under the Workmen's Compensation Acts, 1934 to 1953, brought by virtue of paragraph (a) of this subsection, the applicant shall be deemed to have worked for remuneration and the amount of the remuneration shall be estimated by the Court by reference to the value of the work.