UNEMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE (AMENDMENT) ACT, 1940

AN ACT TO REMOVE DOUBTS AS TO THE METHOD OF CALCULATING THE SUMS PAYABLE (IN THE PAST AS WELL AS IN THE FUTURE) TO THE MINISTER FOR INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE UNDER SECTION 26 OF THE UNEMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE ACT, 1933, AND FOR THAT PURPOSE, AND ALSO FOR OTHER PURPOSES, TO AMEND THE UNEMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE ACTS, 1933 TO 1938. [20th March, 1940.]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:—

1 Definitions.

1.—(1) In this Act—

the expression “the Principal Act” means the Unemployment Assistance Act, 1933 (No. 46 of 1933);

the word “hereditaments” includes all lands, tenements, buildings, and other properties, corporeal or incorporeal, which are required by the Valuation Acts to be valued under those Acts, and also includes a part of any such property which is separately valued under those Acts.

• (2) Every word and expression used in this Act to which a particular meaning is given by the Principal Act for the purposes of that Act has, in this Act, the meaning so given to it.

2 Amendment and interpretation of section 26 of the Principal Act.

2.—In order to remove doubts as to the true construction and meaning of section 26 of the Principal Act, it is hereby enacted as follows, that is to say:—

• (a) sub-section (1) of the said section 26 is hereby amended, as from the passing of the Principal Act, by the deletion of the words “the amount of a rate of” where they occur in paragraph (a) of the said sub-section and also where they occur in paragraph (b) of the said sub-section;

• (b) subject to the provisions of this section in relation to any particular county borough or the borough of Dun Laoghaire, the expression “rateable value” where it occurs in sub-section (1) of the said section 26 means and always meant in relation to any urban area the aggregate amount of the valuations under the Valuation Acts of all hereditaments situate in that urban area in respect of which any rate is payable or, in the case of an unoccupied hereditament, would be payable if the hereditament were occupied, whether such rate is payable to the corporation or the council of the said urban area or to some other authority having power by statute to make and levy rates, and whether such rate is, in the case of any particular hereditament, payable on the valuation thereof under the said Acts or on a fraction of that valuation or on a rent or a fraction of a rent issuing out of the hereditament, and whether such rent is payable in respect of the whole or a part only of a local financial year;

• (c) in the case of the county borough of Dublin and in the case of the borough of Dun Laoghaire, the expression “rateable value” where it occurs in paragraph (a) of sub-section (1) of the said section 26 means and always meant an amount equal to ninety-eight per cent, of the amount which would be the rateable value of that county borough or borough (as the case may be) under the next preceding paragraph of this section if this paragraph had not been enacted;

• (d) in the case of the county borough of Limerick, the expression “rateable value” where it occurs in paragraph (a) of sub-section (1) of the said section 26 means and always meant, in relation to the rateable value of that county borough at the beginning of a financial year beginning on or after the 1st day of April, 1934 (whether before or after the passing of this Act), an amount equal to ninety-eight per cent, of the amount which would be the rateable value of the said county borough at the beginning of such financial year under paragraph (b) of this section if this paragraph had not been enacted;

• (e) in the case of the county borough of Waterford, the expression “rateable value” where it occurs in paragraph (a) of sub-section (1) of the said section 26 shall mean, in relation to the rateable value of that county borough at the beginning of a financial year beginning on or after the 1st day of April, 1939, an amount equal to ninety-eight per cent, of the amount which would be the rateable value of the said county borough at the beginning of such financial year under paragraph (b) of this section if this paragraph had not been enacted;

• (f) in the case of the county borough of Cork, if provisions shall be enacted whereby the rates leviable by the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses of Cork are consolidated into a single municipal rate (whether known by that or any other name), the expression “rateable value” where it occurs in paragraph (a) of sub-section (1) of the said section 26 shall mean, in relation to the rateable value of the said county borough at the beginning of the financial year next before the first financial year in which the said provisions are in operation or at the beginning of any subsequent financial year, an amount equal to ninety-eight per cent, of the amount which would be the rateable value of the said county borough at the beginning of such financial year under paragraph (b) of this section if this paragraph had not been enacted;

• (g) whenever the rateable value of an urban area at the beginning of a financial year is being calculated for the purposes of the said section 26, regard shall be had to all appeals under the Valuation Acts determined on or before the 30th day of June in the next following financial year and no regard shall be had to any such appeal determined after that date.

3 Raising of moneys payable by corporations of county boroughs.

3.—Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (3) of section 26 of the Principal Act, all moneys payable (whether before or after the passing of this Act) under section 26 of the Principal Act as amended or otherwise affected by this Act to the Minister by the corporation of any of the county boroughs of Cork, Limerick, and Waterford, after the rates leviable by such corporation have or shall have been consolidated into a single municipal rate, shall be raised by such corporation by means of such municipal rate but as a separate item thereof.

4 Payment by councils of deficiencies in payments for past years.

4.—(1) Whenever any council liable to pay money to the Minister under section 26 of the Principal Act shall, in any financial year which began before the passing of this Act, have paid to the Minister in purported compliance with that section a total amount (in this section called the actual payment) which is less than the total amount (in this section called the proper payment) which, if this Act had been enacted before the beginning of such year, would have been payable in such year to the Minister by such council under the said section 26 as amended by this Act, such council shall pay to the Minister a sum equal to the amount by which the actual payment fell short of the proper payment.

• (2) For the purpose of determining the sum payable under the foregoing sub-section of this section by a council to the Minister, the Minister may credit to such council, as against the amount by which the actual payment by such council in any financial year falls short of the proper payment by such council in that year, the amount by which the actual payment by such council in any previous or subsequent financial year exceeds the proper payment by such council in that year.

• (3) Every council by whom money is payable to the Minister under this section shall pay such money to the Minister in such one or more instalments, at such time or times, and in such manner as the Minister shall direct either generally or in respect of such council in particular.

• (4) Money payable by a council to the Minister under this section shall be raised by such council in the like manner as money payable in the same financial year to the Minister by such council under section 26 of the Principal Act as amended by this Act is required by the said section or by this Act to be raised.

• (5) Where any money is payable to the Minister under this section by a council, the amount thereof may, in default of payment by such council, be deducted from sums payable from the Local Taxation (Ireland) Account directly or indirectly to such council, and be paid to the Minister in discharge of such money.

5 Certificate by the Commissioner of Valuation.

5.—(1) The Commissioner of Valuation shall, whenever so requested by the Minister, furnish to the Minister a certificate stating, with due regard to the provisions of this Act, the rateable value for the purposes of section 26 of the Principal Act at the beginning of any particular financial year (whether beginning before or after the passing of this Act) specified in such request of any particular urban area so specified.

• (2) A certificate furnished by the Commissioner of Valuation to the Minister in pursuance of this section shall be conclusive evidence for the purposes of the Principal Act and of this Act of the rateable value of the urban area to which such certificate relates at the beginning of the financial year specified in that behalf in such certificate.

6 Employment for period covering two days.

6.—(1) The Minister may by regulations made by him under the Principal Act prescribe either generally or in respect of any particular class or classes of persons or any particular district or districts that where a person is employed to work continuously from a time on one day until a time on the next following day, that person shall be regarded, for the purposes of the Unemployment Assistance Acts, 1933 to 1938, and this Act as being, by virtue of such employment, employed only on such one of those days as shall be prescribed by such regulations.

• (2) The word “day” has in this section the meaning given to it by section 2 of the Unemployment Assistance (Amendment) Act, 1935 (No. 38 of 1935), for the purposes of the Principal Act and that Act.

7 Amendment of section 15 of the Principal Act.

7.—(1) The Principal Act shall be construed and have effect as if the following paragraph were inserted in sub-section (1) of section 15 thereof in lieu of paragraph (e) now contained therein (being the paragraph inserted therein by sub-section (2) of section 8 of the Unemployment Assistance (Amendment) Act, 1935 (No. 38 of 1935)), that is to say:—

• “(e) in the case of a person resident in an urban area applying for unemployment assistance, that either—

  • (i) he has, at any time before making such application, been ordinarily resident in such urban area for a period of five years, or for a number of periods which amount in the aggregate to five years, or

  • (ii) he has been ordinarily resident in such urban area for at least one year immediately preceding such application, or

  • (iii) he has had at least three months employment in such urban area within the year immediately preceding such application.”

• (2) The references in sub-sections (3) and (4) of the said section 8 of the Unemployment Assistance (Amendment) Act, 1935, to sub-section (2) of that section shall be construed and have effect as references to the next preceding sub-section of this section.

8 Repeals.

8.—(1) Sub-section (5) of section 26 of the Principal Act is hereby repealed as from the passing of that Act.

• (2) Section 7 of the Unemployment Assistance (Amendment) Act, 1938 (No. 2 of 1938), is hereby repealed as from the passing of that Act.

9 Short title, citation, and construction.

9.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Unemployment Assistance (Amendment) Act, 1940.

• (2) The Unemployment Assistance Acts, 1933 to 1938, and this Act may be cited together as the Unemployment Assistance Acts, 1933 to 1940.

• (3) The Unemployment Assistance Acts, 1933 to 1938, and this Act shall be construed together as one Act.