S.I. No. 110/1971:

HEALTH (REMOVAL OF OFFICERS AND SERVANTS) REGULATIONS, 1971.

HEALTH (REMOVAL OF OFFICERS AND SERVANTS) REGULATIONS, 1971.

The Minister for Health, inexercise of the powers conferred on him by sections 23 (5), 24 (3) and 24 (8) and (10), of the Health Act, 1970 , (No. 1 of 1970 ), hereby makes the following Regulations:

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Health (Removal of Officers and Servants) Regulations, 1971.

2. In these Regulations--

"the Act" means the Health Act, 1970 .

"the Minister" means the Minister for Health.

"committee" means a committee appointed under section 24 (1) of the Health Act, 1970 .

3. These Regulations shall come into operation on 1 May, 1971.

4. (1) Whenever it is proposed to remove an officer or servant of a health board from being such officer or servant, the officer or servant shall be given notice in writing by the chief executive officer or an officer authorised to act on his behalf--

(a) of the intention to remove;

(b) of the reasons for such removal;

(c) that the chief executive officer will consider any representations made by him or on his behalf before the expiration of seven days after the giving of such notice;

(d) of details of any proposal to appoint him to another office or employment.

(2) Effect shall not be given to any proposal for removal until notice of the intention to remove has been given in accordance with sub-article (1) of this article and until any representations made by or on behalf of the officer or servant have been considered.

(3) Notice under sub-article (1) of this article shall be sent to the officer or servant by delivering it to him or by leaving it at the address last notified by him to the health board as his address or by sending it by post in a prepaid registered letter to that address.

(4) (i) Nominations of persons to the first panel established under section 24 (2) (b) of the Act shall be for the period commencing on 1 May, 1971, and ending on 30 June, 1972.

(ii) Nominations of persons to be the second and subsequent panels established under section 24 (2) (b) of the Act shall be for the period commencing on 1 July in any year in which a quinquennial election of members of local authorities appointing members to a health board is held and ending on 30 June in the next year in which such a quinquennial election is held.

(5) The chairman of a committee shall convene the first meeting of the committee not less than ten days after the committee is established.

(6) During the conduct of a committee's proceedings, the chairman shall have discretion as to the conduct of the proceedings and in particular shall--

(a) decide the order of appearance of persons appearing before the committee,

(b) permit the officer to appear in person or to be represented or assisted by another person, and

(c) hear, if he thinks fit, any person who is not a party to the proceedings,

(7) A committee shall make its recommendation in writing to the chief executive officer and shall send a copy of the recommendation to the officer.

(8) A committee shall complete its proceedings and submit its recommendation to the chief executive officer, notwithstanding that any member of the committee has ceased to be a person whose name is on a panel referred to in section 24 (2) (b) of the Act.

(9) Where, before a committee has made a recommendation, the chairman of the committee for any reason becomes unable to continue to act as such, the Minister may, at the request of the officer concerned, or if he considers it desirable so to do, appoint another committee.

(10) Whenever a committee recommends that an officer be removed, the officer may request the Minister, within fourteen days after the committee has sent its recommendation, to issue a direction to the chief executive officer in relation to that recommendation.

(11) A request submitted under sub-article (10) shall be submitted in writing to the Minister either by the officer or on his behalf and shall specify the grounds on which the officer requests the Minister to issue a direction to the chief executive officer and the Minister shall notify the chief executive officer of the receipt of such request.

GIVEN under the Official Seal of the Minister for Health this 24th day of March, One Thousand Nine Hundred and Seventy-one.

ERSKINE H. CHILDERS,

Minister for Health.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.

Section 23 of the Health Act, 1970 requires that removals of officers and servants of health boards are to be carried out in accordance with a procedure to be prescribed in regulations. The section also provides that, in certain circumstances, removal of a permanent officer of a health board cannot be carried out except on the recommendation of a committee established by the Minister to inquire into the proposed removal. Members (other than the Chairman) of such a committee, will be selected by the Minister from panels, one nominated by organisations representative of officers and one nominated by the chief executive officers of the health boards.

The regulations specify the procedure to be followed by a chief executive officer of a health board whenever it is proposed to remove an officer or servant of the board. They prescribe the periods for which nominations to panels, established under Section 24 of the Health Act, 1970 , will be made, and the procedure to be adopted by a committee. They also set out the procedure to be followed by an officer, whom a committee has recommended be removed, in making a request to the Minister to issue a direction to the chief executive officer under section 24 (10) of the Act, in relation to that recommendation.