Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Act , 1939

1. The Principal Act.

1.—In this Act the expression “the Principal Act” means the Ministers and Secretaries Act, 1924 (No. 16 of 1924).

2. The Department of Supplies.

2.—F1[…]

3. Allocation of functions to the Department of Supplies.

3.—F2[…]

4. Minister without portfolio.

4.—(1)Nothing in the Ministers and Secretaries Acts, 1924 and 1928, or this Act shall render it obligatory for every member of the Government to be a Minister having charge of a Department of State.

(2)A member of the Government who is not a Minister having charge of a Department of State shall be known as a Minister without portfolio.

(3)The Government may, whenever they think proper so to do, assign to any particular Minister without portfolio a specific style or title which shall be judicially and officially noticed.

5. Transfer of Departments to and from Ministers.

5.—F3[…]

6. Divers powers of the Government in relation to Departments of State.

6.—(1)It shall be lawful for the Government, whenever they so think proper, to do by order all or any of the following things, that is to say:—

(a)to alter in such way as they think proper the name (whether in the Irish language or the English language or in both those languages) of any Department of State;

(b)to alter in such way as they think proper the title (whether in the Irish language or in the English language or in both those languages) of any Minister having charge of a Department of State;

(c)to transfer the administration and business of any particular public service or of any branch or part of any such public service from any Department of State to any other Department of State and to make all such transfers of officers and property and do all such other things as shall be incidental to or consequential on such transfer of administration and business;

(d)to transfer from any Minister having charge of a Department of State to the Minister having charge of any other Department of State any particular power, duty, or function vested by or under any statute or otherwise in the said first-mentioned Minister;

(e)to prescribe the organisation of any Department of State and for that purpose to create units of administration within such Department of State;

(f)to allocate to such Department of State as appears to the Government to be appropriate the administration and business of any public service which is not expressly allocated to any particular Department of State or in respect of the allocation of which any doubt, question, or dispute has arisen;

(g)to make all such adaptations of enactments as shall appear to the Government to be consequential on anything done by them under any of the foregoing paragraphs of this sub-section.

(2)If any doubt, question, or dispute shall arise as to the Department of State to which the administration and business of any particular public service or of any branch or part of any such public service is allocated or as to the Minister in whom any particularpower, duty, or function is vested, such doubt, question, or dispute shall, without prejudice to the power in that behalf conferred on the Government by the foregoing sub-section of this section, be determined by the Taoiseach.

(3)Whenever any particular power, duty, or function is now or shall hereafter be conferred or imposed by statute on or shall be transferred under this section to a Minister having charge of a Department of State, the administration and business in connection with the exercise, performance, or execution of such power, duty, or function shall be deemed to be allocated to the said Department of State.

7. Temporary inability of Ministers.

7.—(1)Whenever an individual holding the office of Minister having charge of a Department of State becomes, by reason of ill-health or on account of absence from Ireland or from any other cause, temporarily unable to discharge the duties of his said office, the Government may by order made before and in contemplation of or during such temporary inability nominate another member of the Government (whether having or not having charge of a Department of State) to execute, during a specified period not exceeding the duration of such temporary inability, the office of the said individual who has so become temporarily unable to discharge the duties of that office.

(2)The Government may by order at any time while a nomination under this, section is in force revoke such nomination and, in particular, may so revoke such nomination for the purpose of making a new nomination in lieu thereof.

(3)A member of the Government who is nominated under this section to execute the office of a Minister having charge of a Department of State shall, while he is exercising that office in pursuance of such nomination, be for all purposes the Minister having charge of the said Department but may, if and whenever it appears to him to be convenient so to do, add the word “gníomhathach” or, in English, prefix the word “acting” to his title as such Minister.

(4)The nomination under this section of a member of the Government to execute the office of a Minister having charge of a Department of State shall not prejudice or affect the appointment or tenure of office of a person holding at the time of such nomination the office of parliamentary secretary to such Minister.

(5)Where an individual who becomes temporarily unable within the meaning of the first sub-section of this section to discharge the duties of his office holds office as Minister in charge oftwo or more Departments of State, different members of the Government may, where the Government so think proper, be nominated under this section to execute the office of such individual in respect of each or any of the said Departments of State.

8. Right of audience of parliamentary secretaries.

8.—F4[…]

9. Delegation of Ministerial powers and duties to parliamentary secretaries.

9.—F5[…]

10. The Irish names of certain Ministers and Departments.

10.—The name in the Irish language of every Minister who is mentioned (by the name which was his lawful name immediately before the coming into operation of the Constitution) in the second column of the Schedule to this Act shall be and be deemed to have been, as from the coming into operation of the Constitution, the name stated in the third column of the said Schedule opposite the said mention of such Minister in the said second column, and the name in the Irish language of the Department of State of which such Minister has charge shall be and be deemed, as from the coming into operation of the Constitution, to have been the name stated in the fourth column of the said Schedule opposite the said mention of such Minister in the said second column.

11. Repeals.

11.—Sections 11 and 12 of the Principal Act and section 4 of the Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Act, 1928 (No. 6 of 1928), are hereby repealed.

12. Commencement.

12.—This Act shall be deemed to have come into force on the 8th day of September, 1939, and shall have and be deemed to have had effect as on and from that day.

13. Short title, construction, and citation.

13.—(1)This Act may be cited as the Ministers and Secretaries (Amendment) Act, 1939.

(2)This Act shall be construed as one with the Ministers and Secretaries Acts, 1924 and 1928, and those Acts and this Act may be cited together as the Ministers and Secretaries Acts, 1924 to 1939.