No. 36/1939:

MINISTERS AND SECRETARIES (AMENDMENT) ACT, 1939

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

1 The Principal Act.

2 The Department of Supplies.

3 Allocation of functions to the Department of Supplies.

4 Minister without portfolio.

5 Transfer of Departments to and from Ministers.

6 Divers powers of the Government in relation to Departments of State.

7 Temporary inability of Ministers.

8 Right of audience of parliamentary secretaries.

9 Delegation of Ministerial powers and duties to parliamentary secretaries.

10 The Irish names of certain Ministers and Departments.

11 Repeals.

12 Commencement.

13 Short title, construction, and citation.

SCHEDULE

AN ACT TO ESTABLISH, AS ON AND FROM THE 8TH DAY OF SEPTEMBER, 1939, A DEPARTMENT OF SUPPLIES AND FOR THAT PURPOSE, AND ALSO FOR DIVERS OTHER PURPOSES, TO AMEND THE MINISTERS AND SECRETARIES ACTS, 1924 AND 1928, AS ON AND PROM THE SAID DAY.

[21st December, 1939.]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:—

1.—In this Act the expression "the Principal Act" means the Ministers and Secretaries Act, 1924 (No. 16 of 1924).

2.—(1) A Department of State to be styled and known as the Department of Supplies shall be and is hereby established.

(2) The Department of Supplies shall comprise the administration and business in respect of such functions in relation to all or any of the following matters as shall for the time being be allocated under this Act to that Department, that is to say:—

( a ) the regulation and control of supplies and services essential to the life of the community;

( b ) the maintenance and provision by or on behalf of the State of such supplies as aforesaid:

( c ) the provision and operation by or on behalf of the State of such services as aforesaid.

(3) The Minister who has charge of the Department of Supplies shall be styled an t-Aire Soláthairtí or (in English) the Minister for Supplies and shall be a corporation sole under his style or name aforesaid with perpetual succession and an official seal (which shall be officially and judicially noticed) and may sue and, subject to the fiat of the Attorney-General having been granted, be sued under his style or name aforesaid and may acquire, hold, and dispose of land.

(4) The Principal Act (except section 1 and sub-section (1) of section 2 thereof and the sections thereof repealed by this or any other Act) shall apply to the Department of Supplies and the Minister having charge thereof as if that Department had been established by section 1 of the Principal Act.

3.—(1) Whenever the Government are of opinion that any function in relation to one or more of the matters mentioned in sub-section (2) of the next preceding section ought in the public interest to be entrusted to the Minister for Supplies, the Government may, by order or by such other means as they think proper, allocate the administration and business in respect of that function to the Department of Supplies, and may by order or other means aforesaid terminate such allocation if and when they are of opinion that it, is expedient in the public interest so to do.

(2) Whenever the administration and business of a function allocated under this Act to the Department of Supplies would, but for such allocation, be included in the public services comprised in another Department of State, the administration and business in respect of that function shall, to the extent of such allocation and so long as it continues, cease to be included in the public services comprised in such other Department of State.

4.—(1) Nothing in the Ministers and Secretaries Acts, 1924 and 1928, or this Act shall render it obligatory for every member of the Government to be a Minister having charge of a Department of State.

(2) A member of the Government who is not a Minister having charge of a Department of State shall be known as a Minister without portfolio.

(3) The Government may, whenever they think proper so to do, assign to any particular Minister without portfolio a specific style or title which shall be judicially and officially noticed.

5.—(1) The Taoiseach may at any time terminate the assignment of a particular Department of State to the member of the Government then having charge thereof and assign such Department to another member of the Government.

(2) Every termination of the assignment of a particular Department of State to a particular member of the Government which was effected by the Government on or after the 8th day of September, 1939, and before the passing of this Act and every assignment of a Department of State to a member of the Government which was similarly effected shall be and be deemed always to have been valid and effectual.

6.—(1) It shall be lawful for the Government, whenever they so think proper, to do by order all or any of the following things, that is to say:—

( a ) to alter in such way as they think proper the name (whether in the Irish language or the English language or in both those languages) of any Department of State;

( b ) to alter in such way as they think proper the title (whether in the Irish language or in the English language or in both those languages) of any Minister having charge of a Department of State;

( c ) to transfer the administration and business of any particular public service or of any branch or part of any such public service from any Department of State to any other Department of State and to make all such transfers of officers and property and do all such other things as shall be incidental to or consequential on such transfer of administration and business;

( d ) to transfer from any Minister having charge of a Department of State to the Minister having charge of any other Department of State any particular power, duty, or function vested by or under any statute or otherwise in the said first-mentioned Minister;

( e ) to prescribe the organisation of any Department of State and for that purpose to create units of administration within such Department of State;

( f ) to allocate to such Department of State as appears to the Government to be appropriate the administration and business of any public service which is not expressly allocated to any particular Department of State or in respect of the allocation of which any doubt, question, or dispute has arisen;

( g ) to make all such adaptations of enactments as shall appear to the Government to be consequential on anything done by them under any of the foregoing paragraphs of this sub-section.

(2) If any doubt, question, or dispute shall arise as to the Department of State to which the administration and business of any particular public service or of any branch or part of any such public service is allocated or as to the Minister in whom any particular power, duty, or function is vested, such doubt, question, or dispute shall, without prejudice to the power in that behalf conferred on the Government by the foregoing sub-section of this section, be determined by the Taoiseach.

(3) Whenever any particular power, duty, or function is now or shall hereafter be conferred or imposed by statute on or shall be transferred under this section to a Minister having charge of a Department of State, the administration and business in connection with the exercise, performance, or execution of such power, duty, or function shall be deemed to be allocated to the said Department of State.

7.—(1) Whenever an individual holding the office of Minister having charge of a Department of State becomes, by reason of ill-health or on account of absence from Ireland or from any other cause, temporarily unable to discharge the duties of his said office, the Government may by order made before and in contemplation of or during such temporary inability nominate another member of the Government (whether having or not having charge of a Department of State) to execute, during a specified period not exceeding the duration of such temporary inability, the office of the said individual who has so become temporarily unable to discharge the duties of that office.

(2) The Government may by order at any time while a nomination under this section is in force revoke such nomination and, in particular, may so revoke such nomination for the purpose of making a new nomination in lieu thereof.

(3) A member of the Government who is nominated under this section to execute the office of a Minister having charge of a Department of State shall, while he is exercising that office in pursuance of such nomination, be for all purposes the Minister having charge of the said Department but may, if and whenever it appears to him to be convenient so to do, add the word "gníomhathach" or, in English, prefix the word "acting" to his title as such Minister.

(4) The nomination under this section of a member of the Government to execute the office of a Minister having charge of a Department of State shall not prejudice or affect the appointment or tenure of office of a person holding at the time of such nomination the office of parliamentary secretary to such Minister.

(5) Where an individual who becomes temporarily unable within the meaning of the first sub-section of this section to discharge the duties of his office holds office as Minister in charge of two or more Departments of State, different members of the Government may, where the Government so think proper, be nominated under this section to execute the office of such individual in respect of each or any of the said Departments of State.

8.—(1) A parliamentary secretary who is a member of Dáil Eireann shall have the right to attend and be heard in Seanad Eireann.

(2) A parliamentary secretary who is a member of Seanad Eireann shall have the right to attend and be heard in Dáil Eireann.

9.—(1) It shall be lawful for the Government, by order made on the request of a Minister having charge of a Department of State, to delegate to the parliamentary secretary to such Minister all the powers and duties of such Minister under any particular Act or any particular statutory power or statutory duty of such Minister.

(2) The following provisions shall apply and have effect in relation to every delegation to a parliamentary secretary under this section, that is to say:—

( a ) the Government may at any time revoke such delegation either at the request of the Minister on whose request it was made or without any such request;

( b ) such delegation shall terminate on the happening of either or both of the following events, that is to say, the Minister on whose request such delegation was made ceasing to be the Minister to whose powers and duties such delegation relates or the parliamentary secretary to whom such delegation was made ceasing to be parliamentary secretary to the said Minister;

( c ) such delegation shall operate, so long as it continues in force, to confer on and vest in the parliamentary secretary to whom it is made every of the statutory powers and duties delegated by such delegation;

( d ) every statutory power and duty delegated by such delegation shall be exerciseable and performed by such parliamentary secretary in his own name but subject to the general superintendence and control of the Minister on whose request it was made and subject to any conditions or restrictions stated in such delegation;

( e ) every statutory power or duty delegated by such delegation shall, notwithstanding such delegation, continue to be vested in the Minister on whose request such delegation was made but shall be so vested concurrently with such parliamentary secretary and so as to be capable of being exercised or performed by either such Minister or such parliamentary secretary;

( f ) such delegation shall not remove or derogate from the responsibility of the Minister on whose request it was made to Dáil Eireann or as a member of the Government for the exercise or performance of the statutory powers and duties thereby delegated.

10.—The name in the Irish language of every Minister who is mentioned (by the name which was his lawful name immediately before the coming into operation of the Constitution) in the second column of the Schedule to this Act shall be and be deemed to have been, as from the coming into operation of the Constitution, the name stated in the third column of the said Schedule opposite the said mention of such Minister in the said second- column, and the name in the Irish language of the Department of State of which such Minister has charge shall be and be deemed, as from the coming into operation of the Constitution, to have been the name stated in the fourth column of the said Schedule opposite the said mention of such Minister in the said second column.

11.—Sections 11 and 12 of the Principal Act and section 4 of the Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Act, 1928 (No. 6 of 1928), are hereby repealed.

12.—This Act shall be deemed to have come into force on the 8th day of September, 1939, and shall have and be deemed to have had effect as on and from that day.

13.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Act, 1939 .

(2) This Act shall be construed as one with the Ministers and Secretaries Acts, 1924 and 1928, and those Acts and this Act may be cited together as the Ministers and Secretaries Acts, 1924 to 1939.

SCHEDULE

NAMES IN IRISH OF CERTAIN MINISTERS AND DEPARTMENTS.