No. 21/1956:

MINISTERS AND SECRETARIES (AMENDMENT) ACT, 1956

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

1 Appointed day.

2 The Gaeltacht.

3 The Department of the Gaeltacht.

4 Short title, construction and citation.

AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A DEPARTMENT OF THE GAELTACHT, AND FOR THAT PURPOSE TO AMEND THE MINISTERS AND SECRETARIES ACTS, 1924 TO 1946, AND TO PROVIDE FOR OTHER MATTERS CONNECTED WITH THE MATTERS AFORESAID.

[5th June, 1956.]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:—

1.—The Government may by order appoint a day to be the appointed day for the purposes of this Act.

2.—(1) For the purposes of this Act the Gaeltacht shall comprise the areas for the time being determined to be Gaeltacht areas by order of this section.

(2) The Govenment may from time to time by order determine to be Gaeltacht areas specified areas, being substantially Irish-speaking areas and areas contiguous thereto which, in the opinion of the Government, ought to be included in the Gaeltacht with a view to preserving and extending the use of Irish as a vernacular language.

(3) The Government may by order revoke or amend any order under this section.

(4) Every order under this section shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and if a resolution annulling the order is passed by either such house within the next subsequent twenty-one days on which that House has sat after the order is laid before it, the order shall be annulled accordingly but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under the order.

3.—(1) On the appointed day a Department or State to be styled and known as the Department of the Gaeltacht shall stand established.

(2) It shall be the function of the Department of the Gealtacht to promote the cultural, social and economic welfare of the Gaeltacht; to encourage the preservation and extension of the use of Irish as a vernacular language; and to such extent as may be necessary or appropriate, to consult and advise with other Departments of State in respect of services administered by such Departments which effect the cultural, social or economical welfare of the Gaeltacht or which concern the national aim of restoring the Irish language.

(3) The number of the Government who is in charge of the Department of the Gaeltacht shall be styled and known as the Minister for the Gaeltachat.

(4) The Ministers and Secretaries Acts, 1924 to 1946, and the Documentary Evidence Act, 1925 (No. 24 of 1925), shall apply to the Department of the Gaeltacht and the member of the Government who is in charge therof as if that Department had been established by section 1 of the ministers and Secretaries Act, 1924 (No. 16 of 1924).

(5) For the purposes of subsection (1) of section 6 of the Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Act, 1939 (No. 36 of 1939), the Department of the Gaeltacht and the office of the Minister for the Gaeltacht shall be deemed to have been established immediately upon the passing of this Act, but any order which is made, in relation to that Department or that Minister, under the said sub-section (1) before the appointed day shall not be expressed to come into operation on a date earlier than the appointed day.

4.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Act, 1956 .

(2) This Act shall be construed as one with the Ministers and Secretaries Acts, 1924 to 1946, and this Act and those Acts may be cited together as the ministers and Secretaries Acts, 1924 to 1956.