Local Government (Reorganisation) Act , 1985

PART I Preliminary and General

1 Short title, collective citations, construction and commencement.

1.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Local Government (Reorganisation) Act, 1985.

(2) The Local Government Acts, 1925 to 1983, and this Act may be cited together as the Local Government Acts, 1925 to 1985.

(3) The Local Government (Dublin) Acts, 1930 to 1971, and Part III of this Act may be cited together as the Local Government (Dublin) Acts, 1930 to 1985.

(4) The County Management Acts, 1940 to 1972, and section 7 of this Act may be cited together as the County Management Acts, 1940 to 1985.

(5) Part IV of this Act and the Local Government Acts, 1925 to 1983, shall be construed together as one Act.

(6) This Act shall come into operation on such day or days as the Minister may fix by order, either generally or with reference to any particular purpose or provision, and different days may be so fixed for different purposes and different provisions of this Act.

2 Interpretation.

2.—(1) In this Act—

“functions”, except where the context otherwise requires, includes powers and duties;

“the Minister” means the Minister for the Environment.

(2) A reference in this Act to any enactment shall be construed as a reference to that enactment as amended or adapted by any subsequent enactment.

3 Orders and regulations generally.

3.—(1) Every order or regulation made by the Minister under this Act, other than under section 5, 7 (7), 8 or 24, shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made, and if either such House shall, within the next twenty-one days on which that House has sat after such order is laid before it, pass a resolution annulling such order or regulation, such order or regulation shall be annulled accordingly but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

(2) Where it is proposed to make an order under section 8 or 24 of this Act, a draft thereof shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas and the order shall not be made until a resolution approving of the draft has been passed by each such House.

(3) (a) Subject to paragraph (b) of this subsection, the Minister may by order amend or revoke an order made under this Act (including an order made under this subsection).

(b) In case it is proposed to make an order under this subsection amending (whether expressly or otherwise) or revoking an order under section 8 or 24 of this Act, subsection (2) of this section shall apply as regards the proposal as it applied to the proposal to make the order to which the order proposed to be made under this subsection relates.

PART II Galway

4 Definitions (Part II).

4.— In this part—

“the appointed day” has the meaning assigned to it by section 5 (1);

“the City Council” has the meaning assigned to it by section 6 (2);

“the Corporation” has the meaning assigned to it by section 5 (2);

“the County Council” means the council of the county of Galway;

“the County” means the administrative county of Galway;

“the County Borough” means the county borough of Galway;

“the Borough” means the Borough of Galway established by the Local Government (Galway) Act, 1937;

“the Borough Council” means the council established under the Local Government (Galway) Act, 1937, for the Borough.

5 Establishment of Borough of Galway as County Borough.

5.—(1) On such day (in this Part referred to as the “appointed day”) as the Minister shall appoint by order, the Borough shall cease to be part of the County and shall, as on and from such day, be an administrative county of itself, and be called the County Borough of Galway.

(2) On the appointed day the Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of the Borough of Galway shall be and be known as the Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of the County Borough of Galway (elsewhere referred to in this Part as “the Corporation”).

(3) The Corporation shall have, in so far as is consistent with this Act or any order made under section 8 or 24 of this Act, the functions which immediately before the appointed day stood vested by law in the Corporation of the Borough of Galway together with such other functions as are for the time being, vested by law in the corporations of county boroughs generally and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, the law which immediately before the appointed day applied in respect of the Borough, together with the law which for the time being applies in respect of county boroughs generally, shall, insofar as is consistent with this Act or any order made under section 8 or 24 of this Act, apply to the County Borough.

(4) For the purposes of the election of members of the County Council held next after the commencement of this section and without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1) of this section, the Borough shall be deemed not to be part of the County and persons registered as local government electors in respect of the area comprised in the Borough shall not be entitled to vote at the election of members of the said council.

(5) For the avoidance of doubt it is hereby declared that, subject to any order made under section 8 or 24 of this Act, anything commenced or otherwise done before the appointed day in relation to, or in the name of, the Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of the Borough of Galway shall on and after that day be regarded as if it had been commenced or otherwise done in relation to, or in the name of, the Corporation.

6 Membership of Council of Borough of Galway and establishment of City Council.

6.—(1) (a) The Borough Council shall, on and after the ordinary day of retirement of members thereof which occurs next after the commencement of this section, consist of fifteen members and that number of members shall accordingly be elected at every election of members of the Borough Council held after such commencement.

(b) Section 15 of the Local Government (Galway) Act, 1937, shall be construed and have effect subject to paragraph (a) of this subsection.

(2) On and from the appointed day there shall be a Galway City Council (elsewhere in this Part referred to as “the City Council”) to fulfil the functions assigned to it by law and it shall consist of a Mayor and the same number of aldermen and councillors as did the Borough Council immediately prior to the appointed day, and the persons who were members of the Borough Council immediately prior to the appointed day shall on that day become and be the members of the City Council and shall in relation to the City Council, hold the same offices as they held, respectively, in relation to the Borough Council.

7 Management of County Borough of Galway.

7.—(1) The City Council shall directly perform all the functions of the Corporation which by virtue of subsection (3) of this section are reserved functions and such other functions as are for the time being declared by or under any enactment to be reserved functions.

(2) There shall be an office of Galway City Manager the holder of which shall perform for the Corporation every function of the Corporation which (having regard to subsections (1) and (3) of this section) is not a reserved function.

(3) Subject to this section and to the provisions of any order made under section 8 or 24 of this Act, the County Management Acts, 1940 to 1972, shall apply to the Corporation in like manner as they apply to the council of a county.

(4) For the purposes of giving effect to subsection (3) of this section, in the County Management Acts, 1940 to 1972, except where the context otherwise requires—

(a) any reference to a county shall be construed as including a reference to the County Borough,

(b) any reference to the council of a county shall be construed as including a reference to the Corporation, or, as may be appropriate, to the City Council,

(c) any reference to the chairman of the council of a county shall be construed as including a reference to the Mayor of the County Borough,

(d) any reference to a meeting, member, committee, member of a committee or meeting of a committee of a county council shall be construed as including a reference to a meeting, member, committee, member of a committee or meeting of a committee, as may be appropriate, of the City Council,

(e) any reference to a borough in the Second Schedule to the County Management Act, 1940, shall be construed as including a reference to the County Borough,

(f) any reference to a county manager shall be construed as including a reference to the Galway City Manager, and

(g) any reference to an assistant county manager shall be construed as including a reference to a Galway Assistant City Manager.

(5) The office of Galway County Manager and the office of Galway City Manager shall be held by one and the same person.

(6) The person who immediately before the appointed day held in a permanent capacity the office of Galway County Manager shall, on and from that day, become, by virtue of this subsection, the Galway City Manager.

(7) (a) Subject to paragraph (b) of this subsection, where, in the case of the Corporation and the County Council—

(i) one of them by resolution declares that the office of Galway County Manager and the office of Galway City Manager should cease to be held by one and the same person, and

(ii) the other of them, on the day on which such resolution is passed or on a day within three months thereafter, by resolution also declares as aforesaid,

the Minister may by order terminate the operation of subsection (5) of this section.

(b) If the person who on the 1st day of March, 1985, was the Galway County Manager, holds on the appointed day the offices of Galway County Manager and Galway City Manager by virtue of subsection (6) of this section, then for so long as that person continues thereafter so to hold those offices, paragraph (a) of this subsection shall not have effect.

8 Supplementary provisions (Part II).

8.—(1) The Minister may by order make such provisions as may appear to him to be appropriate, arising from, by reason of, for the purposes of, or to give full effect to, the establishment of the Borough as a county borough and such order may include provisions relating to any matter whatsoever arising in relation to such establishment.

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1) of this section, the Minister may—

(a) make such provisions in relation to the offices of Galway City Manager and Galway County Manager, or either of them, as he considers appropriate,

(b) make such other provisions as he considers appropriate for or in connection with the management of the County Borough, the County or both the County Borough and the County.

(3) Nothing in this section shall be construed as prejudicing the generality of section 24 of this Act.

PART III Dublin

9 Definitions (Part III).

9.— In this Part and in the First, Second and Third Schedules to this Act—

“the added areas” means the parts of the County described in Part III of the said First Schedule;

“the Borough Council” means the Council of the Borough of Dún Laoghaire;

“the City” means the county borough of Dublin;

“the City Council” has the meaning assigned to it by section 1 of the Local Government (Dublin) Act, 1930;

“the Corporation” means the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of Dublin;

“the County” means the administrative county of Dublin;

“the County Council” means the council of the county of Dublin;

“established electoral county” means an electoral county established by section 12 of this Act;

“the excluded areas” means the parts of the City described in Part II of the said First Schedule.

10 Alteration of boundaries of Dublin City and County.

10.—(1) On the commencement of this section, each of the parts of the City described in Part II of the First Schedule to this Act shall be detached from the City and from the jurisdiction and powers of the Corporation and added to the County, and on and from such commencement each of the said parts shall be included in, and form part of, the County for all purposes, and the boundary of the County shall be altered accordingly.

(2) On the commencement of this section, each of the parts of the County described in Part III of the First Schedule to this Act shall be detached from the County and from the jurisdiction and powers of the County Council and added to the City, and on and from such commencement each of the said parts shall be included in, and form part of, the City for all purposes and the boundary of the City shall be altered accordingly.

(3) The provisions contained in the Second Schedule to this Act shall apply and have effect in relation to the alteration of boundaries effected by subsections (1) and (2) of this section.

11 Increase in membership of Dublin City Council.

11.—(1) The City Council shall, on and after the ordinary day of retirement of members thereof next after the commencement of this section, consist of fifty-two members and that number of members shall accordingly be elected at every election of members of that council held after such commencement.

(2) Section 2 of the Local Government (Dublin) Act, 1945, shall be construed and have effect subject to subsection (1) of this section.

12 Establishment of Dublin Electoral Counties.

12.—(1) The County, as existing on the commencement of section 10 of this Act, shall, for the purpose of the local elections next occurring after the commencement of this section to the councils established under section 13 (1) of this Act, be divided for the purposes of those elections into three electoral counties to be known for such purposes as—

(a) the electoral County of Dublin — Fingal,

(b) the electoral County of Dublin — Belgard,

(c) the electoral County of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.

(2) The boundary of an established electoral county shall be the boundary described in the Third Schedule to this Act in respect of that county.

13 Establishment, membership and election of councils of established electoral counties.

13.—(1) A council shall be established in each of the established electoral counties.

(2) The number of members of a council referred to in subsection (1) of this section shall be that set out in column (2) of the Table to this section opposite the mention in column (1) thereof of that council.

(3) There shall be elected at the local elections next occurring after the commencement of section 12 of this Act a council for each of the established electoral counties and the Local Elections Acts, 1963 to 1974, shall apply to each election held pursuant to this subsection as if each of the councils to be so elected were the council of a county.

TABLE

Council	Numbers of members of council
(1)	(2)
Council of the electoral County of Dublin — Fingal.	24
Council of the electoral County of Dublin — Belgard.	26
Council of the electoral County of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.	28

14 Definition of electoral areas in established electoral counties.

14.—(1) The Minister shall by order divide each of the established electoral counties into county electoral areas and fix in respect of each such county the number of members of the council of such county to be elected from every county electoral area in such county, and in making such order the Minister shall comply with the requirements of subsection (2) of this section.

(2) The order required to be made by subsection (1) of this section shall be made as soon as may be after the commencement of section 12 of this Act and in any event not later than the date of the order to be made under section 84 (as amended by section 4 of the Local Elections Act, 1966) of the Electoral Act, 1963, fixing the polling day at the local elections to be held in 1985.

(3) The divisions into county electoral areas effected by an order under subsection (1) of this section shall have effect for the purposes of the elections to be held pursuant to section 13 (3) of this Act and thereafter.

(4) The number of members of the council of an established electoral county to be elected for each county electoral area in such county at the elections to be held pursuant to section 13 (3) of this Act and thereafter shall be the number fixed in that behalf by the order required to be made under subsection (1) of this section.

(5) Subsection (7) of section 33 of the Local Government Act, 1941, shall apply to any division effected under subsection (1) of this section as it applies to any division made by an order under the said section 33.

15 Provisions relating to elections of councils of established electoral counties.

15.—(1) The register of electors for an established electoral county shall, for the purposes of the elections to be held pursuant to section 13 (3) of this Act, be that portion of the register of electors for the County (as existing immediately after the commencement of section 10 of this Act) as relates to the area which that established electoral county comprises.

(2) The returning officer for the election of members of each of the councils of the established electoral counties shall be the Dublin City Manager and Town Clerk.

(3) The cost of conducting the elections held pursuant to section 13 (3) of this Act shall be defrayed—

(a) in the case of the election as regards the electoral county of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, by the County Council and the Corporation of the Borough of Dún Laoghaire in such proportion as the Dublin City Manager and Town Clerk shall direct,

(b) in the case of the other such elections, by the County Council.

16 Continuation of Dublin County Council and Dún Laoghaire Corporation.

16.—(1) There shall not be an election of members of the County Council or the Borough Council at the local elections next occurring after the commencement of section 12 of this Act.

(2) The County Council shall, on and after the ordinary day of retirement of members thereof next occurring after the commencement of section 12 of this Act, consist of seventy-eight members.