Employment Equality Act, 1977

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SCHEDULE

Employment Equality Agency

Section (34) (3)

1. The Agency shall be a body corporate with perpetual succession and power to sue and be sued in its corporate name and to acquire, hold and dispose of land.

2. The Agency shall consist of a chairman (in this Schedule referred to as “the chairman”) and ten ordinary members.

3. The chairman may at any time resign his office by letter addressed to the Minister and his resignation shall take effect as on and from the date of the receipt of the letter by the Minister.

4. The Minister may at any time remove the chairman from office.

5. Where the chairman or an ordinary member of the Agency becomes a member of either House of the Oireachtas, he shall, upon his becoming entitled under the Standing Orders of the House to sit therein, cease to be the chairman or such ordinary member.

6. A person who is for the time being entitled under the Standing Orders of either House of the Oireachtas to sit therein shall be disqualified from being either the chairman or an ordinary member of the Agency.

7. The chairman shall be appointed by the Minister either in a whole-time or a part-time capacity and shall hold office for not more than five years on such terms and conditions as the Minister determines with the consent of the Minister for the Public Service.

8. The chairman shall be paid, out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas, such remuneration and allowances and expenses incurred by him as the Minister, with the consent of the Minister for the Public Service, may determine.

9. Of the ordinary members of the Agency—

(a) two shall be workers' members;

(b) two others shall be employers' members, and

(c) the remaining six, three of whom shall be representative of women's organisations, shall be nominated by the Minister.

10. Each ordinary member of the Agency shall be a part-time member and, subject to this Schedule, shall hold office for five years on such terms and conditions as the Minister determines with the consent of the Minister for the Public Service.

11. The chairman and an ordinary member of the Agency whose term of office expires by effluxion of time shall be eligible for re-appointment.

12. The Minister may at any time remove an ordinary member of the Agency from office.

13. An ordinary member of the Agency may resign his office as such member by letter addressed to the Minister and the resignation shall take effect as on and from the date of the receipt of the letter by the Minister.

14. A member of the Agency 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.

15. Each ordinary member of the Agency shall be paid, out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas, such expenses as the Minister, with the consent of the Minister for the Public Service, may sanction.

16. The Minister shall appoint one of the ordinary members of the Agency to be vice-chairman of the Agency with the function of acting as chairman in the absence of the chairman.

17. Where a casual vacancy occurs among the workers' members, the employers' members or the women's organisations members of the Agency, the Minister shall forthwith invite the organisation which previously nominated that member to nominate a person for appointment to fill the vacancy and the Minister shall appoint the person nominated to fill the vacancy.

18. (1) The Minister, with the consent of the Minister for the Public Service, may appoint such officers and servants as he thinks necessary to assist the Agency in the performance of its functions.

(2) The officers and servants so appointed shall hold office on such terms, and receive such remuneration, as the Minister for the Public Service determines.

19. (1) The Agency shall hold such and so many meetings as may be necessary for the performance of its functions and may make arrangements for the regulation of its proceedings and business.

(2) Such arrangements may, with the approval of the Minister, provide for the discharge, under the general direction of the Agency, of any of its functions by a committee of the Agency.

20. The Minister may fix or sanction the date, time and place of the first meeting of the Agency.

21. The quorum for a meeting of the Agency shall be five members.

22. At a meeting of the Agency—

(a) the chairman shall, if present, be the chairman of the meeting;

(b) in the absence of the chairman or, if the office of chairman of the Agency is vacant, the vice-chairman of the Agency shall act as chairman,

(c) if, and so long as, the chairman is not present, or if the office of chairman of the Agency is vacant and the vice-chairman is not present or the office of vice-chairman is vacant, the members of the Agency present shall choose one of their number to be chairman of the meeting.

23. The chairman and each ordinary member of the Agency attending a meeting of the Agency shall have one vote.

24. Every question at a meeting of the Agency shall be determined by a majority of the votes cast on the question and, in the case of an equal division of votes, the chairman of the meeting shall have a second or casting vote.

25. The Agency may act notwithstanding one or more than one vacancy among its members.

26. Subject to this Schedule, the Agency shall regulate its procedure and business.

27. (1) The Agency shall, as soon as may be after its establishment, provide itself with a seal.

(2) The seal of the Agency shall be authenticated by the signature of the chairman or some other member of the Agency authorised by it to act in that behalf and by the signature of an officer of the Agency authorised by it to act in that behalf.

(3) Judicial notice shall be taken of the seal of the Agency and any document sealed with the seal shall be received in evidence.