11/02/1927:

THE EDUCATION (PROVISION OF MEALS) (IRELAND) ACTS, 1914 TO 1917.

THE EDUCATION (PROVISION OF MEALS) (IRELAND) ACTS, 1914 TO 1917.

No. 60045/1926.

In exercise of the powers vested in me by sub-section (2) of section 1 of the Education (Provision of Meals) (Ireland) Act, 1917, and of all powers in this behalf enabling me, I, the Minister for Local Government and Public Health do hereby make the following regulations with respect to the sums to be paid under the said sub-section to local authorities out of moneys which may be provided by the Oireachtas:—

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Education (School Meals) Regulations, 1927, and shall have effect with respect to the local financial year beginning on the 1st day of April, 1927, and subsequent local financial years.

2. In these Regulations:—

(i) the expression "prescribed" means prescribed by the Minister for Local Government and Public Health.

(ii) the expression "provision of food" means the provision of food furnished in meals to children under the Education (Provision of Meals) (Ireland) Acts, 1914 to 1917.

(iii) other expressions to which special meanings are assigned by the Education (Provision of Meals) (Ireland) Acts, 1914 to 1917, have the same meanings as in these Acts.

3. The regulations made in this behalf by the Local Government Board for Ireland on the 20th day of September, 1918, are hereby revoked but without prejudice to anything done or remaining to be done thereunder.

4. No grant will be payable to a local authority unless:—

(a) such local authority has been duly authorised to spend out of the rates sums for the provision of food under section 3 of the Education (Provision of Meals) (Ireland) Act, 1914; and

(b) the arrangements made for the provision of food have been approved of by me as adequate and efficient and continue so to my satisfaction.

5. The grant payable to a local authority shall not exceed one half of the expenditure incurred by the local authority out of the rates in respect of the provision of food.

6. The grant payable to a local authority will be based on the work done and the expenditure out of the rates in respect of the provision of food during a local financial year and will be payable in the following manner:—

(a) a first instalment in advance not exceeding 50% of the estimated expenditure for the first half of the local financial year ending on the 30th day of September,

(b) a second instalment in advance not exceeding 30% of the estimated expenditure for the second half of the local financial year ending on the 31st day of March subject to any adjustment necessary in respect of the first instalment on ascertainment of the actual expenditure for the first half of the local financial year,

(c) a final instalment of such sum (if any) as shall be certified by the auditor as remaining due in respect of the grant at the close of the local financial year after examination of the accounts of the expenditure incurred in that year.

7. For the purposes of the foregoing article the local authority shall forward to me in the prescribed form:—

(i) in the month of October of each year a preliminary estimate of the receipts and expenditure in respect of the provision of meals for school children for the ensuing local financial year accompanied by explanatory particulars of any substantial increase or decrease in such estimate as compared with the estimate for the preceding local financial year; and

(ii) in the month of April of each year an estimate of the receipts and expenditure in respect of the provision of meals for school children for the first half of the local financial year ending on the 30th day of September; and

(iii) in the month of October of each year a statement of the actual receipts and expenditure in respect of the provision of meals for school children during the first half of the local financial year ending on the 30th day of September, and an estimate of the receipts and expenditure for the second half of the local financial year ending on the 31st day of March.

8. Food shall not be supplied free of cost except to children whose parents or guardians are unable from their own resources to provide such food or to contribute towards the cost of the provision thereof.

9. The accounts of school meals committees shall be kept in such form as I may from time to time prescribe or approve, and shall be open to inspection and investigation by my officers at any time.

10. A local authority shall in the prescribed form and at the prescribed times obtain from a school meals committee and furnish to me such statements in relation to expenditure out of the rates in the provision of food as I may require.

11. (1) All arrangements for the provision of food in respect of which recoupment may be claimed shall be subject to investigation at any time by one of my officers.

(2) Any such officer may at any time inquire into the adequacy of the arrangements for the provision of food and the efficiency of their working and as to the necessity or otherwise for providing meals at any national school or for any particular child or children attending at any such school.

(3) A local authority shall supply to any such officer or to me such information as he or I may from time to time require in regard to the working of the arrangements for the provision of food.

GIVEN under my Seal of Office, this Eleventh day

of February in the Year of Our Lord, One

Thousand Nine Hundred and Twenty-seven.

(Signed) SÉAMUS DE BÚRCA,

Minister for Local Government

and Public Health.