Pigs and Bacon (Amendment) Act, 1961

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Chairman of the Commission.

8.—The following section is hereby substituted for section 5 of the Act of 1939, namely:

“5.—(1) (a) The Minister shall before the appointed day appoint a person to be the Chairman and thereafter as occasion requires the ordinary members shall appoint a person to be the Chairman.

(b) The ordinary members shall determine the procedure for the selection of a person for appointment as Chairman, and if the ordinary members do not determine the procedure or if a person is not selected in accordance with the procedure, the Chairman shall be selected by means of an election held among the ordinary members at a meeting of the ordinary members and the provisions of paragraphs (a) to (h) of subsection (1) of section 43 of the Local Government Act, 1941 , shall apply in relation to the election as if the reference in the said paragraph (a) to a member or members were a reference to a person or persons and as if the subsequent references in that subsection to members were references to ordinary members.

(c) The chief officer of the Commission shall deliver to the Minister notification in writing of the appointment of a Chairman by the ordinary members together with a statement in writing signed by the person signifying his consent to the appointment.

(2) (a) The Chairman appointed before the appointed day shall, unless he sooner dies, resigns, becomes disqualified or is removed from office, hold office for a period of one year commencing on the appointed day.

(b) Every subsequent Chairman shall, unless he sooner dies, resigns, becomes disqualified or is removed from office, hold office for a period of three years commencing on the day next following the day on which the Chairman who immediately preceded him in the office of Chairman, ceased to hold office.

(3) A person holding the office of Chairman may at any time resign his office by letter addressed, in the case of a resignation occurring during the year commencing on the appointed day, to the Minister, and, in the case of any other resignation, to the chief officer of the Commission, and the resignation shall take effect as on and from the date of the receipt of the letter by the Minister or the chief officer, as the case may be, and the person shall be eligible for re-appointment as Chairman.

(4) (a) The Minister may at any time during the year commencing on the appointed day remove the Chairman from office.

(b) The Minister may, at any time after the expiration of the year commencing on the appointed day, at the request of a majority of the ordinary members, remove the Chairman from office if, in the opinion of the Minister, the Chairman is permanently incapacitated, through ill-health, from performing the duties of his office.

(5) (a) Where the Chairman becomes a member of either House of the Oireachtas, he shall, upon his becoming entitled under the Standing Orders of that House to sit therein, cease to be Chairman.

(b) A person who is for the time being entitled under the Standing Orders of either House of the Oireachtas to sit therein, shall, while so entitled, be disqualified from being Chairman.

(6) The Chairman shall be disqualified from holding and shall cease to hold office if he is adjudged bankrupt, or makes a composition or arrangement with creditors, or is sentenced by a court of competent jurisdiction to suffer imprisonment or penal servitude or ceases to be ordinarily resident in the State or absents himself, otherwise than with the permission of the Commission or through illness, during any period of three consecutive months, from every meeting of the Commission held during that period.

(7) (a) Where a casual vacancy occurs in the office of Chairman, the chief officer of the Commission shall, as soon as may be, notify the Minister thereof in writing and the vacancy shall—

(i) in the case of a casual vacancy occurring during the year commencing on the appointed day, be filled by appointment by the Minister, and

(ii) in the case of a casual vacancy occurring after the expiration of the year commencing on the appointed day, be filled by appointment by the ordinary members,

and the person so appointed shall hold office for the remainder of the period for which his predecessor, if he had continued to be Chairman, would have held office and shall, if he is an ordinary member, be deemed on such appointment to have resigned his office as an ordinary member.

(b) The chief officer of the Commission shall be notified in writing as soon as may be of an appointment under subparagraph (i) of paragraph (a) of this subsection and the Minister shall be notified in writing by the chief officer of the Commission of an appointment under subparagraph (ii) of the said paragraph (a) and, in each case, the term of office of the person appointed under the said paragraph (a) shall commence on the date of such notification.

(8) Where the term of office of the Chairman expires by the effluxion of time he shall be eligible for re-appointment.

(9) Where immediately before the commencement of section 8 of the Pigs and Bacon (Amendment) Act, 1961, a person holds the office of Chairman, that person shall continue to hold office until the day before the appointed day and shall be deemed to have been appointed by the Minister under subsection (1) of this section before the appointed day to be the Chairman.

(10) (a) Whenever the Chairman is through ill-health or other sufficient cause temporarily incapacitated from performing the duties of his office, the ordinary members shall appoint a person (being one of the ordinary members) to perform during the incapacity the duties of the Chairman and the person so appointed shall during the incapacity have all the powers of the Chairman and be deemed for the purposes of this Act to be the Chairman, and shall also be deemed during the incapacity not to be an ordinary member.

(b) There shall be paid by the Commission to any person appointed under this subsection such remuneration and such allowances for expenses as the Minister, after consultation with the Minister for Finance, may appoint.

(11) If the person appointed before the appointed day to be the Chairman dies before that day, he shall be deemed, for the purposes of subsection (7) of this section, to have died on the appointed day, and, if a person appointed by the ordinary members to be the Chairman, dies before the commencement of his term of office as Chairman, there shall, on the day on which such term of office would have commenced, be deemed to be a casual vacancy in the office of Chairman

(12) In this Part of this Act ‘appointed day’ means the day appointed by the Minister by order made under this subsection to be the appointed day for the purposes of this Part of this Act.”