We come to amendment No. 120b; amendment No. 121 is related and amendment No. 122 is an alternative and they may be taken together.
SECTION 34.
I move amendment No. 120b:
In page 29, subsection (1), lines 29 to 35, to delete paragraphs (b) and (c).
The formula I proposed involved representatives of the General Council of County Councils and the Association of Municipal Authorities. With such representation it would not make sense if special rules applied to certain members of local authorities.
Section 34 (2) states:
Where a person . . . is nominated as a candidate for election to a local authority or co-opted as a member of a local authority, he shall stand seconded from employment by the Authority. . . .
I presume the Authority referred to is the National Roads Authority and not a local authority. In my constituency, Deputy John Browne was appointed a Minister and had to resign and Councillor Peter Byrne, who was already an urban councillor and an employee of Wexford County Council, was co-opted in his place. I see nothing wrong with that. My amendment No. 122 proposed the deletion of section 35 (2). It is bad enough for such secondment to apply if one is an employee but it is a little harsh to include nominated candidates. Assuming that about half of all candidates fail, it would be harsh to impose such restriction and it might discourage people with experience from running for public office. I do not see any need for this. I propose that section 35 (2) be deleted.
My amendment proposes that employees of the National Roads Authority will have to stand seconded from employment by the National Roads Authority upon election or co-option to a local authority but not when nominated as candidates, as was stated in the Bill as published.
I see. What amendment is that?
Amendment No. 121; my proposal meets your concern.
I note the Minister's point in relation to candidates. If a member of a local authority can also be an employee of a local authority why can a member of the National Roads Authority staff not be a local authority member? I am not talking about membership of the Oireachtas; I am talking about membership of a local authority. If the National Roads Authority deal only with 6 per cent of roads, surely they will not interfere as much if staff are members of both authorities.
It is indicative.
I must apologise. I thought we were dealing with a different amendment when I spoke earlier. My understanding of the Minister's amendment is that if people are elected or co-opted to local authorities, they cannot continue in the employment of the National Roads Authority for the period they are members of the local authorities. That seems extremely unfair to staff members of the National Roads Authority. I can understand that a leave of absence arrangement would apply, for example, for membership of the Dáil or, perhaps, the Seanad where the employment is full-time, remunerated and so on, but membership of a local authority is hardly a very lucrative occupation. This amendment effectively denies a member of staff the right to continue in employment while being a member of the local authority or, conversely, it denies employees of the National Roads Authority the right to become members of a local authority, which would be most unusual. Staff of most State bodies are entitled to become members of local authorities.
We should consider section 34 (1) (c) which gives the Minister power to exempt certain categories of employees from the prohibition on holding both a National Roads Authority job and a position as a local authority member at the same time. We are dealing here with higher executive or technical posts, and if a conflict existed between the local authority and the National Roads Authority the lifting of such prohibition would not be the wisest course to follow. What has been happening up to now is that certain categories are exempted and they are not the subject of consideration here. We are talking here about higher executive or higher technical posts where problems might arise.
I am not happy to withdraw the amendment. I do not agree with the Minister. There are no rules like that, for example, for owners of land who might have a conflict of interest because of their membership of a local authority.
Amendment put and declared lost.
(Deputy Gilmore dissenting.)
I move amendment No. 121:
In page 29, subsection (2), to delete lines 36 to 46 and substitute the following:
"(2) Where a person (whose employment has not been designated by the Minister under subsection (I) (c) is elected as a member of a local authority or co-opted as a member of a local authority, he shall be released on special leave by the Authority and shall not be paid by, or be entitled to receive from, the Authority any remuneration or allowances—
(a) in case he is elected as a member of a local authority — in respect of the period commencing on his election and ending when he ceases to be a member of the local authority,".
Amendment agreed to.
Amendment No. 122 not moved.
Section 34, as amended, agreed to.