ELECTRICITY (SUPPLY) (AMENDMENT) ACT, 1942

AN ACT TO AMEND THE ELECTRICITY (SUPPLY) ACTS, 1927 TO 1942, IN CERTAIN RESPECTS AND, IN PARTICULAR, TO AMEND, WITH RETROSPECTIVE EFFECT, SECTION 39 OF THE ELECTRICITY (SUPPLY) ACT, 1927. [15th December, 1942.]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:—

1 Definitions.

1.—In this Act—

the expression “the Principal Act” means the Electricity (Supply) Act, 1927 (No. 27 of 1927);

the expression “the Board” means the Electricity Supply Board.

2 Exclusion of the Board from certain Acts.

2.—In order to remove doubts it is hereby declared and enacted that the Board is not and never was a local authority within the meaning or for any of the purposes of the Local Government Acts, 1925 to 1941, or any of those Acts or of the Local Authorities (Officers and Employees) Act, 1926 (No. 39 of 1926), either generally or in relation to an undertaking acquired under section 39 of the Principal Act of which the Board constituted itself to be the new undertaker within the meaning of that section.

3 Amendment of section 39 of the Electricity (Supply) Act, 1927.

3.—(1) In this section—

the expressions “authorised undertaker”, “former undertaker”, and “new undertaker” have the same meanings as they respectively have in section 39 of the Principal Act;

the expression “transferred employee” means a person transferred (whether before or after the passing of this Act) by virtue of sub-section (9) or sub-section (11) of the said section 39 from the employment of a former undertaker to the employment of the Board;

the word “consent” includes sanction, concurrence, approval, and other similar acts;

references to a judgment of the High Court shall, where such judgment was the subject of an appeal to the Supreme Court, be construed as referring to that judgment as affirmed or varied by the Supreme Court or, if the said judgment was reversed by the Supreme Court, to the order of the Supreme Court.

• (2) This section applies to the following acts and the expression “act to which this section applies” shall in this section be construed accordingly, that is to say:—

• (a) employing, suspending, dismissing, or retiring a transferred employee;

• (b) fixing or varying the conditions of employment, duties, or remuneration of a transferred employee;

• (c) granting or refusing to grant a superannuation pension or gratuity to a transferred employee or fixing or varying the amount of any such pension or gratuity.

• (3) It is hereby declared and enacted that where, on the acquisition (whether before or after the passing of this Act) under section 39 of the Principal Act of the undertaking of an authorised undertaker, the Board constituted or constitutes itself to be the new undertaker, the expression “the same terms” where it occurs in sub-section (9) or in sub-section (11) of the said section 39 does not and never did include any term (whether statutory or contractual) whereby the former undertaker is or was precluded from doing, without the consent of a Minister or some other person, any act to which this section applies or one or more particular such act or acts.

• (4) The Board has and always had power to do any act to which this section applies without the consent of a Minister or any other person.

• (5) No act to which this section applies done by the Board (whether before or after the passing of this Act) shall be or, in the case of any such act done before the passing of this Act, ever have been invalid or capable of being questioned on the ground of the absence of the consent of a Minister or any other person.

• (6) Whenever the Board does in relation to a transferred employee an act to which this section applies, the following provisions shall (notwithstanding anything contained in the foregoing sub-sections of this section) apply and have effect, that is to say:—

• (a) such transferred employee may, not later than one month after the date on which such act was done by the Board, apply to the Minister for Local Government and Public Health for the annulment of such act;

• (b) the said Minister shall consider every such application and shall, as he shall think proper having regard to all the circumstances of the case, either annul or confirm the act which is the subject of such application;

• (c) whenever the said Minister annuls under this sub-section an act to which this section applies, such act shall be annulled as on and from the date on which it was done and the transferred employee affected shall, so far as may be practicable, be placed in the same position as he would have been in if such act had never been done;

• (d) the said Minister shall not annul under this sub-section an act to which this section applies without giving the Board a reasonable opportunity of making representations in regard to such act or without considering the representations (if any) made by the Board;

• (e) where a transferred employee applies to the said Minister under this sub-section, the act to which such application relates shall, notwithstanding such application, be valid and effective unless and until it is annulled by the said Minister under this sub-section.

• (7) This section shall not operate to invalidate any judgment of the High Court pronounced before the 17th day of July, 1942, declaring the dismissal of a transferred employee by the Board to have been invalid for want of the consent of the Minister for Local Government and Public Health, nor shall this section apply to, prejudice or affect any proceedings in the High Court to recover from the Board arrears of salary which were instituted before the 17th day of July, 1942, by a transferred employee in respect of whom such judgment and declaration was so pronounced and made by the High Court.

• (8) It shall be lawful for the Board to pay to the plaintiff in any proceedings by a transferred employee against the Board which were instituted in the High Court or the Circuit Court before the 17th day of July, 1942, and were grounded on the want of the consent of the Minister for Local Government and Public Health to an act to which this section applies the taxed costs as between party and party incurred by such plaintiff in those proceedings before the said 17th day of July, 1942.

4 Amendment of section 11 of the Electricity (Supply) (Amendment) Act, 1930.

4.—(1) Sub-section (1) of section 11 of the Electricity Supply (Amendment) Act, 1930 (No. 19 of 1930), is hereby amended, as from the passing of that Act, by the deletion of all words from the words “whichever of the following valuations” to the end of the sub-section, and the substitution in lieu thereof of the words “the valuation under the Valuation Acts of such hereditament or tenement which was in force at the date of such vesting order or conveyance (as the case may be)”.

• (2) As soon as may be after the passing of this Act, the Board shall make the payments necessary to give effect, as regards rates in respect of periods before the passing of this Act, to sub-section (1) of this section.

5 Superannuation of certain persons.

5.—(1) This section applies to every person who—

• (a) at any time after the passing of the Principal Act and before the passing of this Act, suffered loss of employment by reason of the closing of a generating station in pursuance of an order under section 61 of the Principal Act; and

• (b) was awarded, under the First Schedule to the Principal Act, a pension for his life on account of such loss of employment; and

• (c) subsequently entered or re-entered the service of the Board; and

• (d) on the date of the passing of this Act is in the continuous employment of the Board; and

• (e) is on the said date in receipt of the said pension; and

• (f) if he had not at any time been transferred to the service of the Board by virtue of sub-section (9) or sub-section (11) of section 39 of the Principal Act, is on the said date not less than fifty-five years of age.

• (2) In this section the expression “appropriate superannuation scheme” means, in relation to a person to whom this section applies, the superannuation scheme under the Electricity Supply Board (Superannuation) Act, 1942 (No. 17 of 1942), which would apply to him but for the provisions of sub-section (6) of section 7 of that Act.

• (3) Any person to whom this section applies may, by application in writing made to the Board not later than one month after the confirmation by the Minister of the appropriate superannuation scheme, elect to receive from the Board the like superannuation benefits as those which he would be entitled to receive under the appropriate superannuation scheme if that scheme applied to him.

• (4) The following provisions shall have effect in relation to every person to whom this section applies who makes, within the time limited by the next preceding sub-section of this section, the application mentioned in that sub-section, that is to say:—

• (a) where such person leaves the service of the Board otherwise than on account of being discharged for misconduct, the pension awarded to him under the First Schedule to the Principal Act shall cease;

• (b) such person shall be entitled to receive from the Board the like superannuation benefits as those which he would be entitled to receive under the appropriate superannuation scheme if that scheme applied to him;

• (c) for the purposes of the superannuation benefits to which he is entitled under the next preceding paragraph of this sub-section, the remuneration and the service of such person shall be computed in accordance with the subsequent provisions of this section;

• (d) the provisions contained in paragraphs (d), (e) and (f) of sub-section (3) and in sub-sections (4) and (6) of section 13 of the Electricity Supply Board (Superannuation) Act, 1942 (No. 17 of 1942), shall apply as if herein re-enacted in relation to such person.

• (5) Where a person to whom this section applies who has not made, within the time limited by sub-section (3) of this section, the application mentioned in that sub-section, leaves the service of the Board otherwise than on account of being discharged for misconduct, the pension awarded to him under the First Schedule to the Principal Act shall cease and, in lieu thereof, he shall be paid by the Board an allowance for life, not exceeding two-thirds of his remuneration, calculated at the rate of one-sixtieth of his remuneration for each year of his service.

• (6) For the purposes of whichever of the two next preceding sub-sections of this section apply to him—

• (a) the remuneration of a person to whom this section applies shall be taken to be the aggregate of—

• (i) the annual amount of the pension awarded to him under the First Schedule to the Principal Act, and

• (ii) the average annual amount paid to him by the Board (otherwise than on account of the said pension) during the three years ending on the day on which he leaves the service of the Board, and

• (b) the service of a person to whom this section applies shall be taken to be the aggregate of—

• (i) the service in respect of which he was awarded his pension under the First Schedule to the Principal Act, and

• (ii) his continuous service (both before and after the passing of this Act) in the employment of the Board after his entry into that employment subsequent to being awarded the said pension.

• (7) No superannuation scheme under the Electricity Supply Board (Superannuation) Act, 1942 (No. 17 of 1942), shall apply to or enable superannuation benefits thereunder to be received by any person to whom this section applies.

• (8) Where a person is entitled to superannuation benefit or an allowance under this section from the Board, he shall not be entitled to any other superannuation benefits or allowance from the Board.

• (9) All expenses incurred by the Board under this section shall be defrayed as part of the general expenses of the Board.

6 Prosecutions for stealing electricity.

6.—(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in section 77 of the Courts of Justice Act, 1924 (No. 10 of 1924), an offence under section 10 of the Larceny Act, 1916, may (in lieu of prosecution by indictment) be prosecuted and tried summarily in the District Court, subject to the restriction that the punishment inflicted on conviction by that Court shall not exceed a fine of fifty pounds or imprisonment for six months.

• (2) Where an offence under section 10 of the Larceny Act, 1916, is prosecuted summarily by virtue of this section, it may be so prosecuted at the suit of the Board or of any other person.

7 Short title and collective citation.

7.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Electricity (Supply) (Amendment) Act, 1942.

• (2) This Act shall be included in the expression “the Electricity (Supply) Acts, 1927 to 1942”.