I move the following amendment:—
In page 7, lines 18 to 48, to delete Section 10 and substitute the following section:—
10.—(1) Where the members of a local authority consisted immediately before the passing of this Act of aldermen and councillors—
(a) the members shall continue to consist of aldermen and councillors,
(b) where the members are 30 or less in number, the number of aldermen shall be the same as the number of local electoral areas and—
(i) if an election of members of the local authority for an electoral area is contested, the firstelected candidate shall be an alderman, and
(ii) if an election of members of the local authority for an electoral area is not contested, the local authority, at their quarterly meeting after the election, shall elect from the candidates elected for that area, in accordance with the principles of proportional representation, one alderman.
(c) where the members are more than 30 in number—
(i) the number of aldermen shall be ten,
(ii) where at an election of members of the local authority, the elections for members for all the local electoral areas are contested—
(I) the returning officer shall prepare a list of the candidates elected showing in order the totals of the first preferences recorded and the list shall begin with the candidate for whom the highest total is recorded and, in any case where totals of first preferences recorded are the same, the order on the list of the candidates concerned shall be determined by lot,
(II) when such list is prepared, the returning officer shall prepare a roll of aldermen,
(III) in preparing such roll of aldermen, the returning officer shall place successively on the roll the names of the candidates whose names appear on such list, in the order in which they so appear, until ten names are so placed, but where the name of a candidate elected for a local electoral area has been so placed, no further name of a candidate elected for that local electoral area should be so placed,
(IV) the candidates whose names have been placed on such roll of aldermen shall be aldermen,
(iii) where at an election of members of the local authority, the elections of members for one or more of the local electoral areas is or are not contested, the local authority, at their quarterly meeting after the election, shall elect from their members, in accordance with the principles of proportional representation, ten aldermen,
(d) any member who is not an alderman shall be a councillor.
(2) The functions of a local authority under this section shall be reserved functions for the purposes of the County Management Acts, 1940 and 1942, and for the purposes of the Act or Acts relating to the management of any county borough.
This is the amendment which I promised to introduce on Report to meet the point raised by Deputy Byrne and some other Deputies in relation to the question of aldermen and councillors. I think it is satisfactory. It allows those who head the poll in the respective areas to be aldermen provided the number of members of the council is more than 30 and where the number is not more than 30 we propose to select the ten persons in the different electoral areas who secured the greatest number of first preferences.