I move amendment No. 1:—
At the end of the section, page 4, to add a new sub-section as follows:—
(2) For the purposes of the selection by the Local Appointments Commissioners, in pursuance of sub-section (3) of Section 4 of the Principal Act as amended by this section, of a person to be recommended by them for appointment to the office of the first county manager for a county or for each of two grouped counties, the following provisions shall have effect, that is to say:—
(a) no person shall be taken to be the county secretary of a county except the person (if any) who is the permanent county secretary of such county at the passing of this Act and is still such permanent county secretary at the time of such selection, save that the person (if any) who is the permanent county secretary of a county at the passing of this Act shall, for the purposes of such selection in relation to the office of the first county manager for that county or for each of two grouped counties of which that county is one, be deemed to be the county secretary of that county if, at the time of such selection (having then ceased to be such permanent county secretary), he holds an office under any body which is a local authority for the purposes of the Local Government Acts, 1925 to 1941;
(b) no person shall be taken to be the secretary to the board of health of a county health district except the person (if any) who is the permanent secretary to such board at the passing of this Act and is still such permanent secretary at the time of such selection, save that the person (if any) who is the permanent secretary to the board of health for a county health district at the passing of this Act shall, for the purposes of such selection in relation to the office of the first county manager for the county in which such county health district is situate or for each of two grouped counties of which that county is one, be deemed to be the secretary to such board of health if, at the time of such selection (having then ceased to be such permanent secretary), he holds an office under any body which is a local authority for the purposes of the Local Government Acts, 1925 to 1941.
The purpose of this amendment is to preserve in those counties in which the appointment of the first permanent manager is deferred the priorities for appointment which the Principal Act gives to the county secretary and the secretary of the board of health. In view of the postponement of appointments of the first permanent managers in certain counties some of the county secretaries or secretaries of boards of health in these counties may possibly go forward for other counties and be selected and appointed. In that event, as the Bill stands, these officers would lose their priority in their own county, and a new county secretary would get it. The amendment will prevent that and will preserve the priority they have, so that they will be considered in the same order as if the permanent appointments in their own counties had not been postponed. When the time would come to reconstitute the county council, of which the officer concerned had been secretary at the date of the passage of this Bill, he might desire to exercise the right conferred on him by the Principal Act— that is to say, the right of being considered on the ground of suitability and of priority over other candidates— and this amendment seeks to preserve to him the right to apply for the post of county manager in what I might describe as his own county with exactly the same rights as under the Principal Act.
