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Appointment of tribunal to report on boundaries and joint public health services.
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101.—(1) The Minister shall, on such two occasions as he shall think proper within the limits hereinafter mentioned and also on such and so many (if any) subsequent occasions as he shall think proper, appoint by order such number of such persons as he shall on each such occasion think fit to constitute and be a tribunal for the purposes of this section, and shall by each such order nominate one of the members of the tribunal thereby appointed to be the chairman of such tribunal and appoint such person as he thinks fit to act as secretary to such tribunal and appoint a convenient day, hour, and place for the first meeting of such tribunal.
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(2) The first appointment of a tribunal under this section shall be made within five years after the passing of this Act and the second such appointment shall be made not less than three years after the appointment of the first such tribunal and not more than ten years after the passing of this Act.
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(3) It shall be the duty of every tribunal appointed under this section to consider, make recommendations, and report to the Minister with all convenient speed whether any and, if any, what alterations are then necessary or desirable in the boundaries of the City and the County respectively and in the several local administrative areas within the County, and also whether any and, if any, what general adjustments of the financial relations of the City, the County, and the several local administrative areas within the County are then necessary or desirable, and also whether any and, if any, what arrangements are then necessary or desirable for the establishment of joint local government or public health services for the common benefit of any two or more of the following areas, that is to say, the City, the County, and the several local administrative areas within the County, and for the joint control of such services by the several local authorities having jurisdiction in the respective areas benefited by such services.
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(4) Every report made by a tribunal appointed under this section shall be forthwith laid before each House of the Oireachtas by the Minister.
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(5) A tribunal appointed under this section shall have all such powers, rights, and privileges for enforcing the attendance of witnesses and examining them on oath or otherwise and for compelling the production of documents as are vested in the High Court or a Judge thereof in respect of the trial of an action, and a summons signed by the chairman of the tribunal shall be equivalent to and have the like effect as a formal process issued by the High Court for enforcing the attendance of witnesses and compelling the production of documents.
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(6) If any person—
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(a) on being duly summoned as a witness before a tribunal appointed under this section makes default in attending, or
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(b) being in attendance as a witness refuses to take an oath legally required by such tribunal to be taken, or to produce any document in his power or control legally required by such tribunal to be produced by him, or to answer any question to which such tribunal may legally require an answer, or
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(c) does any other thing which would, if such tribunal were a Court of Justice having power to commit for contempt of Court, be contempt of such Court,
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the chairman of such tribunal may certify the offence of that person under his hand to the High Court, and that Court may, after such inquiry as it thinks proper to make, punish or take steps for the punishment of that person in like manner as if he had been guilty of contempt of the said Court.
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(7) A witness before a tribunal appointed under this section shall be entitled to the same immunities and privileges as if he were a witness before the High Court.
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(8) The costs and expenses incurred by or in relation to a tribunal appointed under this section shall, to such amount as may be sanctioned by the Minister, be paid to the Minister by such of the following bodies, that is to say, the City Corporation, the County Council, and the several local authorities whose functional areas are within the County, as such tribunal shall direct, and the proportion of such costs and expenses so payable by any such body may be recovered from such body by the Minister as a civil debt.
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