(Private) DUBLIN UNITED TRAMWAYS (OMNIBUS SERVICES) ACT, 1925

AN ACT TO AUTHORISE THE DUBLIN UNITED TRAMWAYS COMPANY (1896), LIMITED, TO PROVIDE AND MAINTAIN OMNIBUS SERVICES IN THE CITY AND COUNTY OF DUBLIN AND COUNTIES OF WICKLOW AND KILDARE, AND TO AMEND CERTAIN ACTS RELATING TO THE COMPANY AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES. [26th March, 1925.]

WHEREAS by section 48 of the Dublin United Tramways (Electrical Power) Act, 1897, the Dublin United Tramways Company (1896), Limited is prohibited from using electrical power save for lighting and moving the carriages used on the tramways and lighting the premises of the Company, and for lighting standards or posts for its own use:

AND WHEREAS by sub-section (3) of section 13 of the Dublin United Tramways Act, 1905, the said Company is prohibited from carrying on or taking any financial interest in any undertaking other than its existing generating station, and the tramways by that Act transferred to and vested in the Company and such extensions of or additions to those tramways as might by Order in Council thereafter be authorised:

AND WHEREAS owing to an increased demand for passenger transport in the City and County of Dublin and Counties of Wicklow and Kildare it is in the public interest that the said Company be empowered to provide, maintain and run omnibuses in the said City and County of Dublin and said Counties of Wicklow and Kildare:

AND WHEREAS the purposes of this Act cannot be effected without the authority of the Oireachtas:

BE IT THEREFORE ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS OF SAORSTÁT EIREANN AS FOLLOWS:—

1 Definitions.

1.—In this Act—

the “Company” means the Dublin United Tramways Company (1896), Limited;

the expression “Local Authority” includes in the City of Dublin the Dublin Corporation, in an urban district the Urban District Council and elsewhere the County Council.

2 Repeal in part of Dublin United Tramways Act, 1905.

2.—Sub-section (3) of section 13 of the Dublin United Tramways Act, 1905, is hereby repealed in so far as it prohibits the Company from providing, maintaining and running omnibuses in the City and County of Dublin and Counties of Wicklow and Kildare.

3 Power to provide maintain and run omnibuses in City and County of Dublin and Counties of Wicklow and Kildare.

3.—The Company may, subject to the Provisions of this Act, provide and maintain and may run omnibuses in the City and County of Dublin and Counties of Wicklow and Kildare:

Provided that—

• (a) the Company before running any omnibus in pursuance of the powers conferred on it by this Act shall from time to time as occasion may require submit to the Minister for Local Government and Public Health for his approval particulars of any route or routes on which the Company proposes to run omnibuses, and the Company shall not run on any route not previously approved of by the said Minister.

Before giving his approval to a route for the purposes of this paragraph, the Minister for Local Government and Public Health shall notify every local authority through the area of which such route passes and shall consider any representations made by any such local authority in respect of such route and should he consider it necessary may hold a public local inquiry into the circumstances of the case. This paragraph shall not apply to the running of any omnibus by the Company for the purpose of meeting a public requirement of a temporary nature or an immediate necessity;

• (b) for the purposes of any local inquiry directed by the Minister for Local Government and Public Health under this section inspectors of the said Minister shall have the same powers as if such inquiry had been directed under the Public Health (Ireland) Acts, 1878 to 1919;

• (c) the costs incurred by the Minister for Local Government and Public Health in relation to any local inquiry directed by him under this section including the salary of any inspector or officer of the said Minister engaged therein not exceeding five guineas a day but not including any costs incurred by any local authority or others appearing at such local inquiry shall be paid by the Company and the said Minister may certify the amount of such costs payable to him and every sum so certified shall be a debt due by the Company to the said Minister;

• (d) the fares charged for the conveyance of any passenger in or upon the omnibuses the property of the Company shall not, save with the approval of the Minister for Industry and Commerce, after a public inquiry duly advertised in reference thereto, exceed the sum of one penny for each two-thirds of a mile for stages fixed by the Company, provided that the Company shall not be obliged to carry any passenger for a lower initial fare than twopence (and for the purposes of this section a fraction of a mile less than two-thirds of a mile shall be deemed to be two-thirds of a mile).

4 Power to use electric motive power for omnibuses.

4.—Notwithstanding the provisions of section 48 of the Dublin United Tramways (Electrical Power) Act, 1897, or of section 13, sub-section (2) of the Dublin United Tramways Act, 1905, the Company is empowered to use electrical motive power to drive its omnibuses, provided that the supply of electricity for real motive power is carried on or in the omnibuses, and not received by them by means of a trolley or delivered to them by means of a cable or electric wire running along the route of such omnibuses.

5 Separate accounts and returns of tramway and omnibus undertakings.

5.—(1) So long as any Act remains in force by virtue of which the Minister for Industry and Commerce or any other Minister or any Government Department has power to modify the statutory provisions regulating the charges to be made by the Company the Company shall keep separate accounts and make separate returns in respect of its tramway undertakings and of its omnibus undertaking, and such separation of accounts and returns shall be effected in such manner in all respects as the Minister for Industry and Commerce shall direct.

• (2) So long as any such Act as aforesaid remains in force, the Company shall in each year within two months after the date to which its annual accounts are made up furnish to the Minister for Industry and Commerce three true copies of its accounts as made up to that date and also three true copies of all returns furnished by it in respect of the year or any part of the year to which such accounts relate.

• (3) If the Company fails at any time while any such Act as aforesaid remains in force to comply with any of the provisions of this section it shall be liable to a penalty of fifty pounds recoverable in a court of summary jurisdiction.

6 Cesser of powers and provision of penalties.

6.—(1) If within three years from the passing of this Act the powers conferred on the Company by this Act or some of them, be not exercised to the satisfaction of the Minister for Industry and Commerce and said Minister shall certify to the Oireachtas after public inquiry in reference thereto duly advertised and held, that the Company has been guilty of default or unreasonable delay in reference thereto, all the powers and authorities given by this Act to the Company shall cease and determine, save only as to so much of such powers as shall have been exercised and subject to such provisions and qualifications as in the opinion of the Minister for Industry and Commerce the case may require.

• (2) If the Company shall at any time fail to comply with any of the provisions of this Act the Company shall be subject to a penalty not exceeding five pounds for every day on which such non-compliance continues and such penalty may be recovered in manner provided by the Summary Jurisdiction Acts.

7 Contracts or agreements to continue binding.

7.—Notwithstanding anything in this Act contained all contracts or agreements made between any local authority and the Dublin United Company or the Dublin Southern Company and referred to in section 8 of the Dublin United Tramways Act of 1905, and thereby made binding upon the Company shall be as binding and of as full force and effect in every respect against or in favour of the Company and may be enforced as fully and effectually as if this Act had not been passed all which contracts are hereby declared to be valid and binding upon the parties unless and until provision to the contrary is made by the Oireachtas. Notwithstanding any discontinuance or abandonment in whole or in part by the Company of any of the existing tramway lines or equipment the Company shall continue to pay to the local authorities not less annually by way of wayleaves than the respective amounts now being paid by the Company unless and until provision to the contrary is made by the Oireachtas.

8 Carriage of passengers personal luggage and mails.

8.—The Company shall not be compelled to carry on its omnibuses any goods save passengers personal luggage not exceeding twenty-eight pounds in weight accompanied by the passenger:

Provided that the Company shall perform with respect to the omnibuses run by it under the provisions of this Act all such services in regard to the conveyance of mails as the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs is entitled to require from it with respect to its tramways under section 24 of the Dublin United Tramways (Electrical Power) Act, 1897, and the provisions of section 2 and section 5 (1) first paragraph of the Conveyance of Mails Act, 1893, shall apply to the said omnibuses in the same manner as if such omnibuses were tramways within the meaning of the said Act.

9 Costs of Act.

9.—All costs, charges and expenses of and incident to the obtaining and passing of this Act or otherwise in relation thereto shall be paid by the Company.

10 Short Title.

10.—This Act may be cited as the Dublin United Tramways (Omnibus Services) Act, 1925.