Galway Harbour Act, 1935

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Contributions of County Council and Urban District Council.

47.—(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, the County Council and the Urban District Council shall each make to the Board an annual contribution in money (in this section referred to as the County contribution and the Urban contribution respectively) for the local financial year beginning on the first day of April in such calendar year as the Minister by order shall determine and for each succeeding local financial year.

(2) The County contribution shall not in any local financial year exceed a sum equal to the amount of a rate of fourpence in the pound raised equally over the whole County (including the Urban District) on the rateable value at the beginning of the immediately preceding financial year of the County (including the Urban District) and the Urban contribution shall not in any local financial year exceed a sum equal to the amount of a rate of one shilling in the pound on the rateable value at the beginning of the immediately preceding financial year of the Urban District; and the said respective contributions shall in every local financial year bear the same proportions to each other as the sums so produced bear or would, if raised, bear in the same local financial year; and the rateable value for the purposes of this section shall be the valuation under the Valuation Acts of the hereditaments and tenements rateable to the poor rate in the County (including the Urban District) or in the Urban District as the case may be.

(3) The County contribution and the Urban contribution respectively—

(a) shall be raised by means of the poor rate, but as a separate item thereof;

(b) shall, subject to the provisions of this section, be of such amounts as shall be specified in an annual estimate and demand to be transmitted by the Board to the County Council and Urban District Council in the month of January in each year, setting forth under the seal of the Board the sums required for the next ensuing local financial year; and

(c) shall be paid to the Board by the County Council and the Urban District Council respectively in two equal half-yearly instalments on the first day of September and the first day of March in each local financial year:

Provided that the rate to be raised for the purpose of the County contribution shall be raised equally over the whole county including the Urban District.

(4) For the purpose of the first County contribution and the first Urban contribution to be made under this Act the Board shall satisfy the Minister, before he shall make an order under sub-section (1) of this section, that the Board has obtained, or is or will, after the Minister shall have made such order, be in a position, upon the security of the County contributions and the Urban contributions and otherwise, to obtain by way of loan or issue of stock or otherwise a sum of £200,000 (whether to be paid immediately or from time to time as the execution of the works shall progress) to be expended in or towards defraying the cost of and incidental to the execution of the works and is prepared on or before receiving payment of the said County contribution and Urban contribution or of a portion thereof respectively to proceed with the execution of the works.

(5) The County contribution and the Urban contribution shall continue to be paid so long as the Board remains liable to repay any moneys raised for the execution of the works and matters incidental thereto under the next succeeding section of this Act: Provided that the aggregate total of the moneys so raised shall not in respect of Works Nos. 1, 2 and 3 and matters incidental thereto exceed a sum of £290,000 nor in respect of the whole of the works and matters incidental thereto, a sum of £400,000.

(6) Every County and Urban contribution shall be applied exclusively in discharging moneys raised for the execution of the works and matters incidental thereto and interest on such moneys to the extent that the Harbour revenue for the time being available under section 45 of this Act for those purposes shall be insufficient for those purposes.

(7) In case the auditor of the Board's accounts shall certify under his hand that the County and Urban contributions in respect of any local financial year were not wholly required for the purposes in the last foregoing sub-section set forth the excess of such contributions, as certified by the auditor, shall be repaid or allowed to the County Council and Urban District Council in the proportions of their contributions for such local financial year.

(8) In case the auditor shall certify under his hand that the County and Urban contributions for any local financial year were made upon an underestimate of the sums required by the Board, the amount of the deficiency in such contributions due to such underestimate, as certified by the auditor, shall be a debt due by the County Council and Urban District Council to the Board and shall be discharged by the County Council and Urban District Council in the same proportions and shall be raised in the same manner as if the amount of the deficiency had been included in the annual estimate and demand of the Board from which it was omitted:

Provided that neither the County Council nor the Urban District Council shall be liable in any local financial year to discharge any greater amount of such deficiency than it can pay (after taking into account the amount of the County contribution or Urban contribution, if any, to be made for that year) without exceeding the annual maximum of fourpence and one shilling in the pound respectively authorised for the contributions to be made under this section.

(9) The County contribution and the Urban contribution shall be excluded in ascertaining any limit imposed by law on the rates that may be levied by the County Council and Urban District Council respectively.

(10) In case any dispute or difference shall arise between the County and Urban District Councils or either of them and the Board, or between the County Council and the Urban District Council with regard to any matter arising under this section, every such dispute or difference shall be referred with full power to award costs, to the final decision of the Minister, if willing to act, or, if he is unwilling, of two arbitrators, one chosen by each party, and, if they disagree, of an umpire chosen by them before they sit, and shall be deemed to have been so referred in pursuance of a submission by deed executed by the parties.