Health Act, 1947

Attendance to health of pupils of schools.

23.—(1) A health authority shall, in accordance with regulations made under section 28 of this Act, do, in respect of the pupils of every school in their functional area to which this section applies, the following things—

(a) safeguard and improve their health and physical condition;

(b) arrange for their medical inspection at the school or any other place;

(c) provide for their education in matters relating to health;

(d) provide for treatment of their illnesses and defects;

(e) ascertain cases of mental deficiency.

(2) This section shall apply to every national school and also to every school to which an order under subsection (3) of this section relates.

(3) Whenever the Minister is not satisfied that the provision made in any school, other than a national school, for the matters mentioned in subsection (1) of this section is adequate he may by order apply this section to such school.

(4) An order under subsection (3) of this section may exempt the school to which it relates from the liability to repay expenses incurred by a health authority.

(5) (a) This subsection applies to—

(i) a school which is the subject of an order under subsection (3) of this section, and

(ii) a national school which is a certified school.

(b) Subject to subsection (6) of this section, any expenses incurred by a health authority in providing, under subsection (1) of this section, treatment, medicines, preparations or appliances for a pupil of a school to which this subsection applies shall be repaid to the health authority by, in case the school (whether a national school or not) is a certified school, the managers thereof or, in any other case, the school manager, and shall be recoverable by the health authority from the said managers or school manager (as the case may be) as a simple contract debt in any court of competent jurisdiction.

(6) Subsection (5) of this section shall not apply in relation to—

(a) the pupils of a school the subject of an order under subsection (3) of this section, which exempts, in pursuance of subsection (4) of this section, the school from the liability to repay expenses incurred by a health authority, or

(b) any pupil of a certified school not sent thereto pursuant to an order made by a court under the Children Acts, or

(c) any pupil of a school for whose maintenance the health authority is liable.

(7) Any sum payable by virtue of subsection (5) of this section in respect of pupils of a certified school shall be repaid to the managers thereof by the local authority liable under the Children Acts for the maintenance of those pupils and shall be recoverable by the said managers from that local authority as a simple contract debt in any court of competent jurisdiction.

(8) In this section—

the expression “the Children Acts” means the Children Acts, 1908 to 1941;

the expressions “certified school” and “the managers” have the same respective meanings as they have in the Children Acts.