CORK CITY MANAGEMENT (AMENDMENT) ACT, 1941

AN ACT TO MAKE FURTHER PROVISION FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE AND FINANCIAL BUSINESS OF THE COUNTY BOROUGH OF CORK AND FOR OTHER MATTERS INCIDENTAL TO SUCH MANAGEMENT OR IN CONNECTION THEREWITH. [26th March, 1941.]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:—.

1 Definitions.

1.—(1) In this Act—

the expression “the Principal Act” means the Cork City Management Act, 1929 (No. 1 of 1929);

the expression “the appointed day” means the day appointed to be the appointed day for the purposes of Part III of the Local Elections Act, 1937 (No. 14 of 1937), as amended by the Local Elections (Amendment) Act, 1940, (No. 19 of 1940), in respect of the Council;

the expression “the next election” means the borough election held on the appointed day.

• (2) This Act shall be read as one with the Principal Act and accordingly every word and expression 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 Terms of office of members of Council in office on appointed day.

2.—The term of office of every member of the Council who is in office on the appointed day shall continue until the fifth day after the appointed day and shall then expire.

3 Borough Elections.

3.—(1) Borough elections shall be held triennially and every borough election shall be an election of all the members of the Council.

• (2) The next election shall be deemed to be a triennial election and the years in which subsequent triennial borough elections shall be held shall be calculated accordingly.

4 Electoral area.

4.—(1) Unless and until an order under this section comes into force, the following provisions shall apply and have effect in respect of borough elections, that is to say:—

• (a) there shall be one electoral area consisting of the area of the Borough and such electoral area shall be a borough electoral area for the purposes of the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1919, and

• (b) the first six members of the Council elected shall be aldermen and all other members of the Council shall be councillors.

• (2) The Council may, in pursuance of a resolution passed by the Council and for the passing of which not less than two-thirds of the members of the Council voted, apply to the Minister for an order dividing the Borough into two or more electoral areas.

• (3) On receiving an application for an order under this section, the Minister may, as he thinks proper, either refuse such application or make such order.

• (4) An order under this section shall—

• (a) appoint in such manner as most nearly secures equal representation on the basis of population—

• (i) the number of members of the Council to be elected at a borough election for each of the electoral areas created by such order, and

• (ii) the number of members of the Council elected at a borough election in each of such areas who shall be aldermen, and

• (b) declare that every member of the Council who is not, in accordance with such order, an alderman shall be a councillor.

• (5) Every electoral area created by an order under this section shall be a borough electoral area for the purposes of the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1919.

• (6) An order under this section shall have the force of law in accordance with the terms thereof.

5 Election, qualification, etc., of members of Council.

5.—(1) Subject to the provisions of the Principal Act and this Act, the law for the time being in force in relation to the election, qualification, disqualification, and tenure of office of members of the council of a county borough shall apply in relation to the election, qualification, disqualification, and tenure of office of members of the Council.

• (2) Save as is otherwise provided by the Principal Act and this Act, the law for the time being in force in relation to the qualification and disqualification of persons for membership of any committee wholly or partly appointed by the council of a county borough shall apply to the appointment by the Council of persons to be members of any such committee and to such persons when so appointed.

• (3) For the purposes of this section, a contract with the Corporation shall be deemed to be a contract with the Council and with every committee and joint committee appointed or partly appointed by the Council, and a contract with any such committee shall be deemed to be also a contract with the Council.

• (4) Sub-section (5) of section 2 of the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, shall not apply in respect of borough elections.

6 Casual vacancies in the Council.

6.—(1) Whenever a vacancy (in this Act referred to as a casual vacancy) occurs in the membership of the Council by reason of the death, resignation, disqualification, or non-acceptance of office of a member thereof, such vacancy shall be filled by the Council after due notice at the next meeting of the Council after the expiration of one month from the occurrence of such vacancy or as soon after that meeting as circumstances will permit.

• (2) Every person who is elected by the Council to fill a casual vacancy shall, unless he sooner dies, resigns, or becomes disqualified or he refuses to accept office, hold office as a member of the Council for the residue then unexpired of the term for which the member whose death, resignation, disqualification, or non-acceptance of office occasioned the vacancy would have held office if he had not died, resigned, become disqualified, or refused to accept office.

7 Reserved Functions.

7.—(1) Section 8 of the Principal Act shall be construed and have effect as if the following matters were included in the matters specified in sub-section (1) of that section as the matters in relation to which the Council shall directly exercise and perform all and every of the powers, functions and duties of the Corporation, that is to say:—

• (a) applications to the Minister for a provisional order under this Act extending the boundary of the Borough;

• (b) the nomination of a person to be a candidate at an election of a person to the office of President of Ireland;

• (c) the appointment of representatives of the Corporation to attend any such conference or meeting as is mentioned in section 2 of the Public Health and Local Government Conferences Act, 1885, and the exercise of the power conferred by that section in relation to the payment of the expenses of the attendance of such representatives at such conferences and meetings;

• (d) the doing under an Act passed before this Act of anything which is declared by that Act to be, in the case of the county borough of Dublin a reserved function within the meaning of the Local Government (Dublin) Act, 1930 (No. 27 of 1930).

8 Affixing of seal to documents.

8.—Notwithstanding the provisions of sub-section (8) of section 10 of the Principal Act, the Manager may, in a case of a vacancy in the office of Lord Mayor or of illness or absence of the Lord Mayor, affix the official seal of the Corporation to documents in the presence of a member of the Council appointed by the Council to act in that behalf.

9 Reception and examination of tenders.

9.—(1) The Council may, if and whenever it thinks fit, make regulations prescribing the procedure to be followed in regard to the reception and examination of all or any particular class or classes of tenders for the supply of goods, the execution of works, or any other thing for which the Corporation may lawfully have invited the submission of tenders.

• (2) All regulations made under this section shall be subject to the approval of the Minister and no such regulation shall be of any force or effect unless or until it has been so approved.

• (3) Whenever and so long as any regulations made under this section are in force, all tenders to which such regulations apply shall be received and examined in accordance with the procedure prescribed by such regulations.

10 Preparation of plans, etc., by the Manager for the Council.

10.—The Council may at any time by resolution require the Manager to prepare and submit to the Council plans and specifications for the execution of any particular work specified in such resolution which can lawfully be executed by the Corporation, together with an estimate of the probable cost of the execution of such work, and whenever the Council passes any such resolution the Manager shall, as soon as conveniently may be, prepare and submit to the Council plans and specifications and an estimate in accordance with such resolution.

11 Manager to be town clerk of Borough.

11.—(1) For the purposes of every enactment (including enactments passed or made after the passing of this Act) relating either to town clerks of county boroughs or to the town clerk of the Borough in particular, the Manager shall become and be the town clerk of the Borough and shall have, exercise, and perform all the powers, functions and duties for the time being conferred or imposed by any such enactment or otherwise by law on the town clerk of the Borough, and, accordingly, the Manager shall be called and known as the Cork City Manager and Town Clerk.

• (2) All fees and emoluments which are payable by or under any enactment (including enactments passed or made after the passing of this Act) to town clerks of county boroughs or in particular to the town clerk of the Borough, and are received by the Manager by virtue of his being the town clerk of the Borough, shall be paid by the Manager into the municipal fund and be accounted for accordingly.

• (3) Section 16 of the Principal Act is hereby amended by the deletion in sub-section (1) thereof of the words “the Town Clerk” and the substitution in lieu thereof of the words “such other officer of the Corporation as the Manager, with the consent of the Minister, from time to time appoints for that purpose”.

• (4) This section shall not come into operation on the passing of this Act if any person who has been permanently appointed to the office of town clerk of the Borough holds that office immediately before such passing, and in such case this section shall come into operation on such person ceasing to hold that office.

12 Attendance, etc., of Manager at meetings of the Council.

12.—The Manager shall attend any meeting of the Council or of any committee of the Council at which he is requested by the Council to attend, and shall at such meeting give to the Council or such committee (as the case may be) such advice and assistance as shall reasonably be required of him by the Council or such committee, and for that purpose the Manager shall arrange for the attendance at such meeting of such of the officers of the Corporation as may be necessary, having regard to the business to be transacted at such meeting.

13 Requisition by Council that a particular thing be done.

13.—(1) The Council, at a meeting specially summoned for the purpose under this section, may by resolution proposed and passed in accordance with this section require any particular act, matter, or thing specifically mentioned in such resolution and which the Corporation or the Manager can lawfully do, to be done in relation to any of the powers, functions and duties of the Corporation which are not for the time being reserved functions.

• (2) Notice of the intention to propose any such resolution as is authorised by the foregoing sub-section of this section shall be given in writing to the Manager and shall be signed by not less than seven members of the Council and shall contain a copy of such resolution and shall specify a day (not less than seven nor more than fourteen days after the day on which such notice is received by the Manager) for the holding of the meeting of the Council at which such resolution is to be proposed and considered.

• (3) Whenever the Manager receives any such notice as is mentioned in the foregoing sub-section of this section, he shall as soon as possible send a copy of such notice to every member of the Council and shall summon a special meeting of the Council for the date specified in that behalf in such notice at the usual hour for meetings of the Council.

• (4) When a resolution of which notice has been given under this section has been proposed at the meeting of the Council summoned for the purpose under this section, the Council and the Manager shall consider such resolution and if after such consideration the Council pass such resolution and the number of members voting for such resolution exceeds either half the total membership of the Council, or two-thirds of the members present and voting, the Manager shall, if and when and so far as money for the purpose is or has been provided, do in accordance with such resolution the act, matter, or thing which is required by such resolution to be done.

• (5) A resolution passed under this section shall not be so expressed as to apply or extend—

• (a) to the exercise or performance of any power, function, or duty of the Corporation generally or to every case or occasion of the exercise or performance of any such power, function, or duty or to a number or class of such cases or occasions so extended as to be substantially or in effect every case or occasion on which such power, function, or duty is exercised or performed, nor

• (b) to the exercise or performance of any power, or duty conferred or imposed on the Manager in relation to the officers or servants of the Corporation or the control, supervision, service, remuneration, privileges, or superannuation of such officers or servants or any of them.

Any resolution purporting to be passed by the Council under this section which contravenes this sub-section shall be void and of no effect.

• (6) In the event of any dispute arising between the Council and the Manager as to whether or not any resolution passed by the Council under this section contravenes the provisions of sub-section (5) hereof, the matter shall be referred for decision to the Minister.

14 Treasurer.

14.—(1) The Corporation shall appoint a banking company to act as treasurer of the Corporation for the purpose of receipts and payments of money and the keeping of accounts of such receipts and payments.

• (2) Every power and duty conferred or imposed on the treasurer of a borough for any purpose other than the purposes referred to in sub-section (1) of this section shall, in the case of the Borough, be exercised and performed—

• (a) where the offices of Manager and Town Clerk are held by the same person—by the officer of the Corporation who countersigns orders under sub-section (1) of section 16 of the Principal Act as amended by this Act, and

• (b) where the offices of Manager and Town Clerk are not held by the same person—by such officer of the Corporation as the Manager, with the consent of the Minister, from time to time appoints for that purpose.

15 The municipal fund.

15.—(1) On and after the 1st day of April, 1941, all the expenses incurred by the Corporation in the exercise and performance of its powers and duties (including the expenses of discharging liabilities existing on the 1st day of April, 1941) shall be defrayed out of a fund to be established by the Corporation and called “the municipal fund”.

• (2) Every fund which, immediately before the passing of this Act, is maintained out of the produce of any of the rates abolished by this Act shall on the 1st day of April, 1941, cease to be so maintained, and on that day the moneys (if any) standing to the credit of any such fund shall be paid into the municipal fund, and every liability due by any such fund shall be defrayed out of the municipal fund.

• (3) On and after the 1st day of April, 1941, all sums received by the Corporation, whether from rates or from sources other than rates, shall be paid to the treasurer of the Corporation and, save as is hereinafter otherwise provided, the receipt alone of the treasurer shall be a good discharge to the person paying the same, and all such sums shall be paid by the treasurer into the municipal fund.

• (4) Notwithstanding anything contained in the foregoing sub-section of this section, the receipt of a collector of rates or of a person duly authorised by the Corporation to receive payments of any other particular class shall be a good discharge to a person making a payment (as the case may be) of rates to such collector or of such other particular class to such person, but in every such case it shall be the duty of such collector or person forthwith to pay the amount of such payment to the treasurer.

• (5) No payments, except such payments as are duly authorised in accordance with the Principal Act as amended by this Act, shall be made out of the municipal fund and every payment so authorised shall be made by the treasurer.

• (6) No part of the municipal fund or of any money under the control of the Corporation shall be applied for any purpose not authorised by this or any other Act or, in the case of money derived from trust funds, by the trusts affecting those funds.

• (7) Every sinking fund or other fund to meet a future or prospective liability which the Corporation is required by or under any statute in force immediately before the passing of this Act to maintain shall be maintained out of the municipal fund and nothing in this section shall relieve the Corporation from the obligation so to maintain every such fund.

16 The municipal rate.

16.—(1) Save as in this Act otherwise provided, all rates (in this Act referred to as rates abolished by this Act) which, immediately before the 1st day of April, 1941, are leviable in the Borough shall, on the said 1st day of April, 1941, cease to be leviable, but such cesser shall not prevent, prejudice, or affect the collection or recovery on or after that date of any portion of any such rate which immediately before that date remains due and unpaid.

• (2) The Corporation shall from time to time, make, assess, and levy, in accordance with this Act, such rate (to be called and in this Act referred to as “the municipal rate”) as may be necessary for the purpose of supplying any deficiency (whether existing or prospective) in the municipal fund.

• (3) Subject to the provisions of this Act, the law for the time being in force in relation to the making, assessment, levying, collection, and recovery of the poor rate shall apply respectively to the making, assessment, levying, collection, and recovery of the municipal rate by the Corporation.

• (4) Notwithstanding anything contained in section 3 of the Enforcement of Court Orders Act, 1926 (No. 18 of 1926), execution orders within the meaning of that Act in proceedings in the District Court for the recovery of moneys due in respect of the municipal rate shall, if the Court on the application of the person by whom such proceedings are brought so directs, be executed by such person.

• (5) Sub-section (7) of section 51 of the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, shall not apply or have effect in relation to any debt, claim, or demand which is directly or indirectly payable out of the municipal rate.

• (6) Every demand note for municipal rate shall show separately on the front or the back thereof the portion of the rate in the pound of the said rate which is raised for any purpose in respect of which the Minister or the Council shall direct that the same shall be so shown separately.

17 Adjustment of rent in certain cases.

17.—(1) Where a tenement or hereditament situate in the Borough is held (whether together with or without other premises) under a lease which binds the lessor to pay or allow a deduction or set off against or indemnify the lessee against or otherwise to relieve the lessee from any rates (other than poor rate) payable in respect of such tenement or hereditament, all rent payable under such lease in respect of a period commencing on or after the 1st day of April, 1941, shall be reduced—

• (a) in the case of an annual rent, by an amount equal to the amount of the rates (other than poor rate) in respect of such tenement or hereditament for the local financial year commencing on the 1st day of April, 1940, to which the relief afforded to the lessee by such lease lawfully extended, and

• (b) in the case of any rent other than an annual rent, by an amount which bears to the rates (other than poor rate) in respect of such tenement or hereditament for the local financial year commencing on the 1st day of April, 1940, to which the relief afforded to the lessee by such lease lawfully extended the same proportion as the period by reference to which such rent is calculated bears to one year.

• (2) In this section the word “lease” includes any contract of tenancy, whether in writing or verbal, whereby the relation of landlord and tenant is created, and the words “lessor” and “lessee” respectively include the landlord of and the tenant under such tenancy.

18 Contract water rate.

18.—The provisions of this Act abolishing certain rates shall not extend or apply to charges (commonly called contract water rates) made for the supply of water to particular hereditaments or tenements for purposes other than domestic purposes or to the supply of water under special contract to any person not otherwise entitled to such supply, and such charges shall, in the construction of this Act, not be included in the expression “rates abolished by this Act”.

19 Rating of certain classes of property.

19.—(1) For the purpose of the assessment and levying of the municipal rate on any hereditament or tenement mentioned or included in a class mentioned in the second column of the First Schedule to this Act, the valuation of such tenement or hereditament shall be deemed to be reduced to the proportion, specified in the first column of the said Schedule in respect of such hereditament or tenement or such class (as the case may be), of the actual valuation under the Valuation Acts of such hereditament or tenement.

• (2) Every hereditament or tenement mentioned or included in a class mentioned in the second column of the First Schedule to this Act shall, for the purpose of assessment to and liability for the municipal rate, be deemed to be excluded from and disentitled to every and any exemption or relief from poor rate which is given by law otherwise than by reduction or control of the valuation on which poor rate is assessed, but such exclusion shall not operate to exempt from rateability to the municipal rate any half-rent which would be rateable to the poor rate if this Act had not been passed.

• (3) Nothing in this section shall apply to or operate to reduce the annual value with reference to which the tax in respect of any hereditament or tenement under Schedules A and B of the Income Tax Act, 1918, is to be ascertained.

20 Rates on vacant premises.

20.—(1) Where a hereditament or tenement which is not a small dwelling within the meaning of the Local Government (Rates on Small Dwellings) Act, 1928 (No. 4 of 1928) is unoccupied at the making of the municipal rate, that rate shall be made upon the person (hereinafter referred to as the owner) who is for the time being entitled to occupy such hereditament or tenement, and upon such rate being paid by such owner, such owner shall be entitled to claim and receive from the Corporation a refund of one-twenty fourth of such rate in respect of every completed month (reckoned from any day of one month to the corresponding day of the next month) during which such hereditament or tenement is unoccupied either for the purpose of the execution of additions, alterations, or repairs thereto or because such owner is bona fide unable to obtain a suitable tenant therefor, in the case of a hereditament or tenement to which the Increase of Rent and Mortgage Interest (Restrictions) Acts, 1923 to 1930, for the time being apply, at the maximum rent for the time being permitted under those Acts or, in the case of any other hereditament or tenement, at a reasonable rent.

• (2) When a rate is made by virtue of this section on the owner of an unoccupied hereditament or tenement and such hereditament or tenement is subsequently let by or on behalf of such owner and such rate or any part thereof is in arrear and unpaid, the rate collector by whom such rate is collectible may, in addition and without prejudice to any other remedy for the recovery of the amount of such rate so in arrear and unpaid, serve either personally or by post on the occupier of such hereditament or tenement a notice stating the said amount so in arrear and unpaid and requiring such occupier to pay to such rate collector or his successor in office all rent then due or thereafter to become due by him in respect of the said hereditament or tenement until the said amount is by such payment or otherwise discharged, and, upon such notice being so served, such rate collector or his successor in office shall have the exclusive right to recover, receive, and give a good discharge for all rent required by such notice to be paid to him.

• (3) A rate made by virtue of this section on the owner of an unoccupied hereditament or tenement shall not be invalidated by any error or defect in the statement of the name of such owner or by the use of the description “the owner” without any name or addition and every such rate shall be recoverable from such owner notwithstanding such error or defect or the use of such description.

21 Amendment of municipal rate.

21.—(1) The Manager may from time to time amend any rate or assessment in the municipal rate book by inserting therein the name of any person who ought to have been rated or by striking out the-name of any person who ought not to have been rated or by raising or reducing the sum at which a person has been rated or by making such other amendment therein as will make such rate or assessment conformable to the provisions of this Act in regard to the making of the municipal rate.

• (2) Every person aggrieved by any such alteration shall have the same right of appeal therefrom as he would have had if his name had been originally inserted in the said rate or assessment and no such alteration had been made therein, and as regards such person the rate shall be considered to have been made at the time when he received notice of such amendment.

22 Payment of existing loans.

22.—Every loan owing by the Corporation which immediately before the appointed day is charged upon any of the rates abolished by this Act or upon any fund maintained out of the produce of any such rate shall, on and after the 1st day of April, 1941, become and be charged upon the municipal rate or the municipal fund respectively.

23 Decoration of the Borough.

23.—(1) The Council, by resolution passed under this section and for the passing of which not less than two-thirds of the members of the Council shall have voted, may authorise the expenditure by the Corporation of moneys on the decoration of the Borough for occasions of public rejoicing or for other appropriate occasions.

• (2) Every resolution passed under this section shall specify the occasion for which the decoration of the Borough wholly or partly at the expense of the Corporation is to be authorised by such resolution and the amount which is to be expended by the Corporation on such decoration.

• (3) Subject to the provisions of the next following sub-section, the Corporation may expend for the purposes of this section moneys out of the Municipal Fund in accordance with and in so far as authorised by a resolution passed under this section but not otherwise.

• (4) The aggregate amount of the expenditure of the Corporation for the purposes of this section in any local financial year shall not exceed a sum equivalent to a rate of one penny in the pound of the rateable valuation of the Borough.

24 Maintenance of branch water pipes.

24.—The Corporation may agree to do all or any of the following things, that is to say, to provide, lay down, renew, or maintain the branch pipes or any particular part of the branch pipes by means of which a supply of water is conveyed from the main pipe to any hereditament or tenement in the Borough.

25 Future extension of the Borough.

25.—(1) The Corporation may apply to the Minister for a provisional order under this section so extending the boundary of the Borough as to include in the Borough any specified portion of the county of Cork.

• (2) Whenever the Minister receives an application by the Corporation under this section, he may, after holding a local inquiry in respect of the extension to which such application relates and after considering any representations made to him by the council of the county of Cork, either make a provisional order giving effect to the extension to which such application relates without modification or with such modifications (whether by way of increase or diminution) as he shall think proper or refuse such application.

• (3) A provisional order under this section shall not have any effect unless or until it is confirmed by Act of the Oireachtas, but if and when so confirmed it shall have effect according to the terms thereof.

• (4) A provisional order under this section may contain—

• (a) provisions in relation to the transfer thereby effected of any area from, the county of Cork to the Borough similar to or to the same effect as the provisions contained in the Local Government (Dublin) Act, 1930 (No. 27 of 1930), relating to or rendered necessary by the transfer to the county borough of Dublin by that Act of the area therein referred to as the added rural area, and

• (b) such provisions as the Minister shall think proper in relation to the adjustment of property, rights, and liabilities and the determination of financial and other matters between the Corporation and the council of any county, the alteration of electoral areas, and any other matter arising in consequence of the extension of the Borough effected by such order.

26 Local Inquiries.

26.—Whenever the Minister holds a local inquiry in pursuance of a direction or under an authority given by this Act, Article 32 of the Schedule to the Application of Enactments Order, 1898, shall apply in respect of such inquiry in like manner as it applies in respect of the inquiries mentioned in the said Article.

27 Validity of certain acts done before passing of this Act.

27.—Every act done by the Corporation before and in anticipation of the passing of this Act in relation to the preparation of any estimate or the making of any rate in respect of the financial year beginning on the 1st day of April, 1941, shall have and be deemed always to have had all such (if any) validity and effect as it would have had if this Act had been in force when such act was done.

28 Repeals.

28.—The enactments mentioned in the Second Schedule to this Act are hereby repealed to the extent specified in the third column of that Schedule.

29 Short title and Collective citation.

29.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Cork City Management (Amendment) Act, 1941.

• (2) The Principal Act and this Act may be cited together as the Cork City Management Acts, 1929 and 1941.

FIRST SCHEDULE. Proportionate Reductions of Valuation.

SECOND SCHEDULE. Enactments Repealed.