I move that this Bill be now read a Second Time. This is essentially a Committee Stage Bill. For this reason, I thought it best to provide Deputies with an Explanatory Memorandum in which every provision in the Bill is explained separately. I feel that some explanation is necessary for the fact that the Bill involves so much legislation by reference. Legislalation by reference is something which I, speaking both as a lawyer and as Minister for Local Government, deplore. I find, however, that if legislation by reference were to be avoided, the Bill would be inordinately long and, moreover, would not gain in simplicity what it would lose in brevity. The Bill is, however, a step towards the consolidation of local government law, which is so badly needed and so long overdue. The first step necessary towards consolidation was the enactment of the Local Government (Repeal of Enactments) Act, 1950, which repealed a large number of obsolete enactments and enabled the text book on local government law, which it is hoped will be published this year, to be confined to more or less manageable size. Consolidation of the general local government law, which will be a lengthy and complicated job, is proceeding and preliminary heads of a consolidated measure are in the hands of the Statute Law Reform and Consolidation Office. In the meantime, many reforms and improvements of the law cannot wait for the general overhaul of the law which consolidation will necessitate and are included in this Bill.
I do not propose to go into its provisions in the same detail as in the Explanatory Memorandum. I will take each part separately and deal with the more important provisions in a general way.
Part I is concerned with definitions and does not call for any comment.
Part II deals with establishment matters. It has two chapters. The first deals with offices and employments generally and is largely a series of amendments to Part II of the 1941 Act, and Part III of the 1946 Act. The second chapter deals with the amendment of the Local Authorities (Officers and Employees) Act, 1926.
In the first chapter, perhaps the most important section is Section 25 which provides a scheme of conciliation for servants of local authorities who may appeal to the elected members against a decision affecting their remuneration, duties or conditions of service. There is an obligation on the elected members to refer the appeal for consideration to an advisory committee to be set up under Section 59 of the Bill. An advisory committee under that section may include persons who are not members of the local authority. This will enable representatives of the servants concerned to be appointed on these committees so that their case may be properly pleaded. The local authority when they have considered the advice of the advisory committee may decide the appeal. Their decision is subject to confirmation by the appropriate Minister where it relates to a matter of remuneration.
If the local authority concerned is not a rating authority, their decision must be approved by the rating authorities who defray the expenses of the local authority. This is reasonable because it is the rating authorities who meet the cost of any wage increases.
It will be recalled that the 12 point programme of the Government includes the provision for employees of local authorities of a scheme of conciliation and arbitration. Section 25 will fulfil that programme in so far as local conciliation is concerned. The question of providing by legislation or otherwise for a scheme of arbitration for local authority employees is at present under consideration.
Another important provision in this chapter is Section 21 which modifies the provisions of Section 70 of the 1925 Act. That section prohibits any person from being employed by any local authority while he is or was within 12 months after he has ceased to be a member of the local authority or any local authority in the same or in an adjoining county or county borough. The provisions of this section have been considered to be too harsh in so far as minor employment by a local authority is concerned. Section 21 will provide that the disqualification of a person from employment as a minor officer or servant will operate only in respect of membership of a local authority by which he is employed. There is an exception to ensure that membership of advisory and visiting committees will not of itself involve disqualification from employment.
The only other provision in this chapter to which I ought to draw special attention is Section 24. This section and the Second Schedule will clarify the position in regard to the power of the appropriate Minister to make age limit Orders. It was considered that under existing law, age limit Orders could be made applying only to officers who on compulsory retirement would be entitled to a pension.
There was some doubt about this and it is now proposed to re-state the law and to limit the powers of the Ministers accordingly. Doubts have also been raised as to the validity of age limit Orders in relation to managers, in view of the terms of the Management Acts which provide that a manager shall hold office until he dies, resigns or is removed from office. Section 24 and Second Schedule will now make it clear that age limit Orders will apply notwithstanding any statutory tenure that an officer may possess under any other enactment.
Chapter II will deal with amendments of the Local Authorities (Officers and Employees) Act, 1926.
Section 27 will exclude certain types of offices from the scope of the Act. These are temporary offices; part-time offices as engineer or surveyor under the council of an urban district or the commissioners of a town; and technical offices, such as that of radiographer which are relatively junior. The removal of these offices from the scope of the 1926 Act will facilitate administration and will enable local authorities to fill these posts more speedily.
Section 28 will remove a source of inconvenience to local authorities by imposing a time limit of three months within which persons recommended for appointment by the Local Appointments Commissioners must take up duty on pain of losing their posts.
Section 31 which is the only other section to which I need refer will enable the commissioners to compile panels of qualified persons from which the needs of a number of local authorities can be met. This provision should help considerably to speed up the making of appointments and will also faciliate candidates in that they will not be required to pay an entrance fee for every particular post for which they apply.
Part III of the Bill contains a number of minor amendments of the law and a few more significant provisions.
Section 32 will enable a road authority to acquire land for quarries compulsorily, if necessary. At present there is a doubt as to whether a road authority can acquire land for this purpose otherwise than by agreement.
Section 37 makes a number of changes in the law on traffic signs, at present contained in Section 69 of the Local Government Act, 1946. It has not been found possible to make suitable regulations under that section, but it is hoped when the more flexible provisions of Section 37 of the Bill become law, to make appropriate regulations regarding the major categories of traffic signs. It is highly desirable to get uniformity in the matter of traffic signs, especially the more important ones, and the regulations should secure that end. In the meantime, a review has been undertaken in my Department of the whole question of traffic signs, including their shape, size, colour, reflecting qualities, and so on, so that when the regulations are made, they should make the best provision possible.
With the growth in traffic, it becomes necessary to improve the sign-posting system and to ensure that road-side signs which would confuse road users are not permitted. In sub-section (3) of Section 37 therefore, it is to be made an offence to provide any sign, device, notice or light capable of being confused with or obscuring a traffic sign. This is based on a recent international convention, which we hope to adhere to in the near future.
Section 38 enables local authorities to appoint traffic wardens to shepherd school children across the road at busy crossing places. Dublin Corporation some time ago requested that steps be taken to enable them to appoint such wardens. In the city, school hours coincide with peak morning and mid-day traffic, and it will be of help both to the school children and to vehicle users if the children are guided across the street in orderly groups.
The Garda Síochána are not in a position to have police officers available at all necessary times at the places where school children cross, hence the need for these "traffic wardens". The powers requested by Dublin Corporation are being made available to local authorities generally, in case others wish to follow their example. It will be noted that any arrangements made by a local authority under the section are to be subject to the consent of the Commissioner of the Garda Síochána, who, it is understood, will assist in ensuring that wardens are properly instructed.
The Motor Car (International Circulation) Act, 1909, was passed at a time when motoring was in its infancy and tourism had not reached its present importance in the balance of payments. It is only to be expected that it does not fully meet modern conditions. The Act had two chief objects: first, to facilitate Irish motorists going abroad and, second, to facilitate foreign motorists visiting Ireland. It is in regard to this second object that it needs improvement. Orders can be made under it only to implement formal conventions whereas it might be desirable from time to time to give effect to informal agreements or even to take unilateral action. Again, it does not cover tourists who wish to drive Irish cars as distinct from tourists importing their own cars. Section 39 of the Bill which is designed to replace the Act should give ample power to make whatever arrangements are considered necessary in the matter of driving licences for foreign visitors and the regulations applicable to their vehicles.
An important matter is dealt with in sub-section (1) of Section 41. Navigation rights were involved in a number of bridge projects considered recently, and doubt was raised as to whether a bridge Order could safely be made providing for the construction of a bridge which would curtail even to the slightest extent any right of navigation, even where the right had not been exercised for many years.
Section 41 therefore provides that a bridge Order given in such a case may be carried into effect. Such a power will, of course, be subject to the safeguards embodied in the Local Government Act, 1946, viz., the ventilation of the whole question at a local inquiry and the requirement of the consent of the Minister for Industry and Commerce who is the responsible Minister in navigation matters. Section 41 of the Bill provides for compensation in respect of any private right of navigation affected.
Section 42 of the Bill, which enables a border county to adopt a scheme for the construction or maintenance of a cross-border bridge, follows generally the lines of a similar provision in an Act in force in the Six Counties. Under the section Donegal County Council will be able to proceed with a scheme for the replacement of Lifford Bridge on which Tyrone County Council and themselves have agreed.
I now come to Part IV of the Bill which deals with local finance. Perhaps the most important provision in this part is Section 51 which deals with the question of levying the county demand. Complaints have been made over a long period about the present method of calculating the amounts to be contributed towards county expenses by boroughs and urban districts. This method is briefly apportionment on a valuation basis, but as not all the valuations taken into account are productive, and lack of productivity is more prevalent in urban than in rural districts, there have been well-founded complaints that an undue share of common charges tends to fall on urban ratepayers. The provisions of Section 51 will meet these complaints. In future county-at-large charges will be shared between the county health district and the urbans in proportion to the net produce of a rate of 1d. in the pound in each area. This figure can be ascertained from the rate accounts of each local authority and the new method of assessment should not involve any complexity. Urban councils and county councils will get full credit for non-productive ratings, irrecoverable rates and so on in the assessment of their shares of county-at-large charges.
Section 50 is another section which I think calls for some comment. This section provides that where a person who is retained by a public body in any professional, advisory or consultative capacity certifies any sum as being payable from the funds of the public body and such sum is paid, he shall in so far as the payment certified by him is concerned be an officer for the purposes of Section 20 of the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1902, which deals with the making of charges by auditors. I want to make it clear that this section will not give the auditor any power to question professional advice given by a consultant. The auditor's powers will be confined to querying any sum paid on the basis of a certificate issued by a consultant.
Part V of the Bill deals with miscellaneous matters. There are four sections in this part on which I would like to comment. The first is Section 53. Under the Local Government Act, 1941, county councils have power to provide a community or parish hall, but they have no power to make a contribution towards the erection of such a hall by a local committee or parish council. It is felt that the power given in Section 53 to contribute would, by fostering local initiative and also by freeing the county councils from the burden of providing and managing the hall, be much more acceptable to county councils.
Section 54 will enable sanitary authorities to make grants to societies, clubs and other bodies providing or proposing to provide swimming facilities. This section will, I am sure, be welcomed by swimming clubs which are not usually in a position to incur the heavy capital expenditure involved in providing swimming pools and also by local authorities because it will relieve them of the expense of managing and maintaining swimming pools as well as part of the capital cost of providing them.
The corporations of the four county boroughs can legally spend money on the decoration of streets on occasions of public rejoicing and other appropriate occasions. Section 55 of the Bill will extend this power to all urban authorities and town commissioners. A limit of 3d. in the pound on the rateable valuation of their areas is imposed. I may mention that many local authorities have already incurred expenditure on Tostal decorations in anticipation of the enactment of this section.
The only other section in this part which I would like to draw attention to is Section 59. It is the section to which I have already referred in connection with appeals by servants. It enables local authorities to set up advisory committees consisting partly of members of the local authority and partly of other persons.
The First Schedule to the Bill contains a list of the enactments being repealed. Most of these repeals are consequential on amendments in the body of the Bill. There are two repeals, however, to which I would like to draw special attention. The first is the repeal of Section 51 (7) of the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898. The repeal of this provision will put local authorities on the same footing as other bodies in so far as liability for payment of debts is concerned. I should like to refer in this connection to the Public Authorities (Judicial Proceedings) Bill, 1954, which is at present before the House and which will have the effect of placing local authorities on the same footing as other bodies in so far as legal actions are concerned.
The other provision in this Schedule to which I would refer is the repeal of Section 10 (2) of the Irish Universities Act, 1908. Under that section the amount of money which could be raised in any year for the purpose of university scholarships could not exceed the proceeds of 1d. rate or such higher rate as a local authority with the consent of the Minister for Local Government might fix. This limitation is now being repealed.