The object of this Bill is to enable a reduction in the police rate for Dublin to commence this year. It is necessary to refer to Section 16 of the original Act, the Police Forces Amalgamation Act, 1925, in which the matter of the 8d. rate which had been struck and collected in the Dublin area for the maintenance of the Metropolitan Police was dealt with. After some discussion in the Dáil the decision was arrived at that that rate in aid that was chargeable to Dublin would disappear over an eight years' period, a reduction of one penny in the £ taking place year by year until the rate in aid had entirely disappeared. In sub-section (2) of Section 16 of the original Act the following occurred:—
In the local financial year commencing next after the passing of this Act the police rate shall be levied at the rate of 8d. in the £, and in the next succeeding local financial year shall be levied at the rate of 7d. in the £, and so on, abating by 1d. in the £ in each succeeding local financial year.
When the Bill was going through it was anticipated that it would be law before the then current financial year. I had introduced it in the Dáil in November of 1924, and it passed through all Stages there by the middle of February, 1925. I hoped and believed that it would be law before 31st March, 1925. It passed its Fourth Stage in the Seanad on 18th March, and I omitted to press for the final stage, believing that the Seanad would meet the following week. It so fell that the Fifth Stage of it was not taken until the 25th of that month, and allowing for the seven days which had to run, the Bill lapped over into the new financial year. It would be a hardship on the Corporation and on the ratepayers of the Dublin area if the State or the Government were to take advantage of that accident, and this Bill is introduced to enable a reduction of one penny in the £ to commence in the financial year 1926-27. Without this Bill the reduction could not commence until the next financial year, 1927-28.
As it was necessary to introduce a Bill to remedy that little mishap, I took advantage of it to deal, also, with one other point, namely, the representative bodies. The present position with regard to representative bodies in the single amalgamated force which now serves the entire area of the State is somewhat unsatisfactory. We have, outside the metropolitan area, two representative bodies, one for officers and one for lower ranks; but inside the metropolitan area there are five representative bodies, one for the members of each rank serving in the area, so that the Department at present is in the position of doing business with no less than seven representative bodies within the force. This section is simply a permissive section to enable representative bodies for the entire force to be formed. That would be Section 3 of the Bill. The two points covered by the Bill are: to enable a reduction of 1d. in the £ to commence in this coming financial year, and a permissive section referring to representative bodies.