S.I. No. 41/1927 - Returning Officers' (Dail Elections) Accounts Regulations, 1927.

STATUTORY RULES AND ORDERS. 1927. No. 41.

RETURNING OFFICERS' (DAIL ELECTIONS) ACCOUNTS REGULATIONS, 1927.

WHEREAS it is enacted by sub-section (1) of section 25 of the Electoral Act, 1923 (No. 12 of 1923), that the Returning Officer at a Dáil election shall be entitled to his reasonable charges in respect of services and expenses therein referred to which have been properly rendered or incurred by him for the purposes of or in connection with such election, and it is enacted by sub-section (5) of the said section 25 that the Minister for Finance may make regulations as to the time when and manner and form in which accounts are to be rendered to him for the purpose of the payment of such charges;

AND WHEREAS in exercise of the powers conferred by the said sub-section (5) of section 25 of the Electoral Act, 1923 , regulations were made by the Minister for Finance on the 15th day of August, 1923, in relation to the matters which under that sub-section are the subject of regulations.

AND WHEREAS it is expedient to revoke the said regulations and to make other regulations in lieu thereof:

NOW, I, Earnan de Blaghd, Minister for Finance, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by sub-section (5) of section 25 of the Electoral Act, 1923 (No. 12 of 1923), and of every and any other power me in this behalf enabling do hereby make the following regulations, that is to say:—

1. These regulations may be cited for all purposes as the Returning Officers' (Dáil Elections) Accounts Regulations, 1927.

2. In these regulations the expression " accounts " means the accounts of a returning officer at a Dáil election of charges in respect of services and expenses which have been properly rendered on incurred by him, for the purposes of or in connection with such election.

3. The Interpretation Act, 1889, applies to the interpretation of these regulations in like manner as it applies to the interpretation of an Act of the Oireachtas passed before the 1st day of January, 1924.

4. The regulations made by the Minister for Finance on the 15th day of August, 1923, under sub-section (5) of section 25 of the Electoral Act, 1923 , (No. 12 of 1923), are hereby revoked.

5. The accounts shall be submitted within a period of eight weeks from the last day for receiving nominations at the election to which the accounts refer and shall be addressed and sent to the Secretary, Department of Finance, Upper Merrion Street, Dublin.

6. The accounts shall be accompanied by a declaration made and subscribed by the Returning officer submitting the same, and every such declaration shall be in the following form:—

"I declare that the accounts herewith submitted by me in respect of my services and disbursements are correct to the best of my knowledge and belief."

(Signed)

Returning Officer.

7. In the case of disbursements which have been already settled by the returning officer vouchers and receipts shall be submitted with the accounts, and in the case of charges which have not been settled the relevant bills shall be submitted with the accounts.

8. The accounts shall be prepared in such form as will show the items of expenditure and the total thereof under each of the various headings specified in the appropriate scale of maximum charges of returning officers at Dáil elections prescribed by the Minister for Finance under sub-section (5) of section 25 of the Electoral Act, 1923 (No. 12 of 1923), and for the time being in force.

9. In submitting the accounts due regard shall be had to any directions issued by the Minister for Finance to returning officers with reference to the particulars and information to be furnished in support of claims for payment out of the Exchequer.

Given under the Official Seal of the Minister for

Finance this seventeenth day of May, in the year

one thousand nine hundred and twenty-seven.

(Signed) SEOSAMH UA BRAONAIN,

Secretary, Department of Finance.