PUBLIC HOSPITALS (AMENDMENT) ACT, 1939

AN ACT TO MAKE PROVISION FOR THE DISCHARGE, IN CASE OF AN EMERGENCY, OF THE EXPENSES INCURRED IN HOLDING A SWEEPSTAKE UNDER THE PUBLIC HOSPITALS ACT, 1933, AND FOR THAT PURPOSE TO PROVIDE FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A RESERVE FUND AND TO AMEND THE SAID ACT. [14th July, 1939.]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:—

1 Definitions.

1.—(1) In this Act—

the expression “the Principal Act” means the Public Hospitals Act, 1933 (No. 18 of 1933);

the expression “the Board” means the Hospitals Trust Board;

the word “sweepstake” means a sweepstake held under the Principal Act.

• (2) The Public Hospitals Acts, 1933 and 1938, and this Act shall be construed together and, accordingly, every word and expression to which a particular meaning is given by or in either of those Acts for the purposes of those Acts has, in this Act, the meaning so given to it.

2 The Reserve Fund.

2.—(1) All moneys paid to the Board under this Act shall, notwithstanding anything contained in section 23 of the Principal Act, form a separate fund, to be known and in this Act referred to as the Reserve Fund, and shall not be part of the Hospitals Trust Fund.

• (2) So much of the capital of the Reserve Fund as is for the time being not required for making payments by the Board in pursuance of this Act shall be invested and kept invested by the Board in securities authorised by law for the investment of trust funds or authorised under section 23 of the Principal Act for the investment of the Hospitals Trust Fund.

• (3) The Board may from time to time vary the investment or any part of the investment of the Reserve Fund.

• (4) All interest, dividends, and income and all sums in the nature of bonus received by the Board on the securities in which the Reserve Fund is invested shall be added to and form part of the capital of the said fund immediately upon receipt thereof by the Board.

• (5) Whenever any payment is required by this Act to be made by the Board out of the Reserve Fund and there is no uninvested money then in that fund or such uninvested money (if any) is less than the amount of such payment, the Board shall sell or otherwise convert into money so much of the securities in which the said fund is then invested as shall, with the said uninvested money (if any), be necessary to produce the amount required for such payment.

3 Payments from the Reserve Fund to the Hospitals Trust Fund.

3.—On or within fourteen days after every 1st day of January the Board shall cause the amount of the capital of the Reserve Fund on the next preceding 31st day of December to be estimated and, if on such estimation the amount of the said capital is found to exceed two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, the Board shall transfer from the Reserve Fund to the Hospitals Trust Fund a sum equal to the amount by which the amount of the said capital is so found to exceed two hundred and fifty thousand pounds.

4 Payments to the Board out of moneys received from the sale of tickets.

4.—(1) There shall be paid to the Board, out of the moneys received from the sale of tickets in the first sweepstake held after the 1st day of January, 1940, a sum equal to four per cent. of those moneys.

• (2) If, on the day or the last of the days on which the drawing of prizes takes place in any sweepstake held at any time after the sweepstake mentioned in the next preceding sub-section of this section, the capital of the Reserve Fund is less than two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, there shall be paid to the Board out of the moneys received from the sale of tickets in such sweepstake whichever of the following sums is the lesser, that is to say:—

• (a) the sum by which the Reserve Fund falls short of two hundred and fifty thousand pounds on the day or the last of the days on which the drawing of prizes in such sweepstake takes place, or

• (b) a sum equal to four per cent. of the moneys received from the sale of tickets in such sweepstake.

• (3) The following provisions shall apply and have effect in relation to the moneys payable in respect of any sweepstake to the Board under whichever of the foregoing sub-sections of this section is applicable, that is to say:—

• (a) the said moneys shall be payable to the Board in priority next after paying or providing for the prizes distributed in such sweepstake and the expenses of holding such sweepstake, so far as such expenses are lawfully payable out of the moneys received from the sale of tickets in such sweepstake;

• (b) the said moneys payable to the Board shall not be taken into account in computing the portion of the moneys received from the sale of tickets in such sweepstake on which the stamp duty imposed by section 50 of the Finance Act, 1932 (No. 20 of 1932), as applied by section 41 of the Finance Act, 1933 (No. 15 of 1933), is chargeable in respect of such sweepstake.

5 Payments by the Board to sweepstake committees.

5.—(1) Whenever the Minister is satisfied, in respect of a sweepstake in which the drawing of prizes takes place after the passing of this Act, that, owing to an emergency which could not reasonably have been foreseen by the sweepstake committee managing such sweepstake and which was not occasioned or contributed to by any act or default of such sweepstake committee, the expenses incurred by such sweepstake committee in holding such sweepstake exceed the total amount lawfully applicable, out of the moneys received from the sale of tickets in such sweepstake, for the payment of such expenses, the Minister may direct the Board to pay to such sweepstake committee such sum as may be necessary to discharge the amount by which the said expenses exceed the said total amount so lawfully applicable for the payment thereof.

• (2) Whenever the Minister directs, under the next preceding sub-section of this section, the Board to make to a sweepstake committee any such payment as is mentioned in that sub-section, the Board shall, notwithstanding anything contained in the Principal Act, make to the said sweepstake committee the payment so directed by the Minister.

• (3) Every payment required by the next preceding sub-section of this section to be made by the Board to a sweepstake committee shall—

• (a) if such payment is so required to be made to the sweepstake committee managing a sweepstake held on or before the 1st day of January, 1940, be made out of the Hospitals Trust Fund, and

• (b) in any other case, be made out of the Reserve Fund so far as that Fund is sufficient and, so far (if at all) as the Reserve Fund is insufficient, out of the Hospitals Trust Fund.

6 Calculation of amount of capital of Reserve Fund.

6.—For the purpose of estimating for any of the purposes of this Act the amount of the capital of the Reserve Fund on any day, the securities in which the Reserve Fund is invested on that day shall be valued in accordance with the following rules, that is to say:—

• (a) every such security in respect of which there is a Stock Exchange or market quotation in Dublin shall be valued at that quotation on the said day, and

• (b) every other such security shall be valued at its nominal value or at the price paid for it by the Board, whichever is the lesser.

7 Short title and collective citation.

7.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Public Hospitals (Amendment) Act, 1939.

• (2) The Public Hospitals Acts, 1933 and 1938, and this Act may be cited together as the Public Hospitals Acts, 1933 to 1939.