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Seanad Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 21 Apr 1927

Vol. 8 No. 19

PUBLIC BUSINESS. - LOCAL ELECTIONS (DISSOLVED AUTHORITIES) BILL, 1927—SECOND STAGE.

This is only a very minor Bill, and the object of it is to obviate a difficulty that has arisen out of what I might describe as a conflict of law or laws. We passed an Electoral Act in 1925, and the result of that Act is that we have to have an election for local authorities in 1928. We are to have the election for municipal authorities in January and for the rural authorities in June. When the Local Government Act was going through, an amendment was inserted which made it obligatory on me to have an election for dissolved local authorities three years after the appointment of Commissioners. The result is that in some cases we would be placed in the position of having a duplication of elections. We should have, in the case of Offaly, an election in September of this year and another election in June, 1928. The cost of that election would be about £600. That would mean an additional cost, another £600, for an unnecessary election. We have the same position in the case of the two dissolved local authorities of Tipperary and Cobh. You will have to have an election in September if this Act is not passed, and as well as that, under the Local Elections Act you will have to have another in January. The only effect of this Bill is to get away from that necessity, and the Bill provides that in such cases, in cases where under the Local Elections Act you will have to have an election within a year after the election which is necessitated under the Act of 1925, that the second election will not be required. That is purely a technical matter. There is no point of principle involved in this Bill which passed through the Dáil without any division.

Question—"That the Local Elections (Dissolved Authorities) Bill, 1927, be read a Second Time"—put and agreed to.
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