PART II

Establishment of Administrative Counties and Councils

7. —The Minister shall by order appoint a day to be the establishment day for the purposes of this Act.

8. —(1) The boundary between the city and the county as existing immediately before the establishment day shall stand altered on and from that day so as to correspond with—

(a) the recommended boundary shown on Map No. 11 of the reorganisation report, and

(b) such alterations as may be made pursuant to section 10 (2),

and the boundaries of the electoral counties shall accordingly also stand so altered to correspond with the foregoing alterations.

(2) Arising from such alterations in the boundary between the city and the county—

(a) each of the areas of the city which is to transfer to the county (the “excluded areas”) shall be detached from the city and from the jurisdiction and powers of Dublin Corporation and added to the county and each of the said areas shall be included in, and form part of, the county for all purposes, and

(b) each of the areas of the county which is to transfer to the city (the “added areas”) shall be detached from the county and from the jurisdiction and powers of the county council and added to the city, and shall be included in, and form part of, the city for all purposes.

(3) The provisions of articles 3 to 8, 11 and 12 (1) of the Second Schedule to the Local Government (Reorganisation) Act, 1985 shall, subject to the provisions of this Act and any regulations made thereunder, apply and have effect with all necessary adaptations in relation to the alteration of boundaries effected by subsection (1) and for that purpose, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, in the said articles—

(a) “this Act” shall mean the Local Government (Dublin) Act, 1993;

(b) “the county council” shall have the same meaning as in this Act;

(c) section 8 of this Act shall be substituted for any reference to section 10 of that Act;

(d) “the excluded areas” and “the added areas” shall mean such areas as defined by section 8 of this Act;

(e) section 28 of the Electoral Act, 1992 shall be substituted for the reference to section 22 of the Electoral Act, 1963 in article 6 (3);

(f) the year 1993 shall be substituted for any reference to the year “1985”;

(g) the Table to article 11 shall accordingly apply to the years 1994 to 2003 in like manner as it applied to the years 1986 to 1995; and

(h) a reference to the county rate in that article shall be deemed to be a reference to the rate of the county council established by section 11 of this Act in whose administrative county the hereditament is situate.

(4) The Minister or any other Minister of the Government, after consultation with the Minister, may by regulations provide that, notwithstanding the alteration of boundaries effected by subsection (1) and the establishment of administrative counties by section 9 —

(a) any enactment (other than this Act) or any order, regulation, rule, bye-law or other instrument or agreement made wholly or partly under any such enactment for which the relevant Minister is responsible, shall, for such period as may be specified in the regulations, continue to have effect in the added areas, in the excluded areas or in any part so specified of those areas,

(b) the expressions “county borough”, “county” or “administrative county” or any analogous expression in any enactment specified in the regulations or in any such instrument or agreement so specified, shall, for such period as is so specified, continue to include (and be deemed always to have continued to include) the excluded areas and the added areas or any part so specified of any such area.

(5) The boundary between the South Dublin electoral county and the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown electoral county as existing immediately before the establishment day shall stand altered on that day so far as is necessary to give effect to the recommendations in the reorganisation report in that respect and to correspond with such alterations as may be made pursuant to section 10 (2).

9. —(1) On the establishment day—

(a) the county shall cease to exist,

(b) the borough shall cease to exist,

(c) the electoral counties shall cease to exist, and

(d) the united district of the burial board shall cease to exist.

(2) On the establishment day the area of the county, as existing on the commencement of section 8 , shall stand divided into three administrative counties which shall each be coterminous with the area of the corresponding electoral county (as existing on such commencement) and which administrative counties shall be known respectively as—

(a) Áth Cliath Theas,

(b) Fine Gall,

(c) Dún Laoghaire-Ráth an Dúin;

or, in the English language—

(a) South Dublin,

(b) Fingal,

(c) Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown.

(3) The boundary of each of the administrative counties mentioned in subsection (2) shall be the boundary as shown on the maps prepared pursuant to section 10 .

(4) The council of a county established by section 11 may, subject to the provisions of this subsection, subsection (5) and regulations made under subsection (7), apply to the Government to make an order under subsection (6) changing the name of its administrative county from the name specified in subsection (2) to such other name as such council may specify in such application.

(5) (a) Such council shall not make such an application unless—

(i) it has first given public notice of its intention to do so and invited submissions in that regard,

(ii) considered any submissions received, and

(iii) more than one half of the total membership of the relevant council vote in favour of the resolution proposing the application.

(b) The exercise by a council of a function under this subsection, subsection (4) or subsection (9) shall be a reserved function for the purposes of the County Management Acts, 1940 to 1993.

(c) Nothing in this subsection or in subsection (4) shall be construed as restricting the exercise by such council of functions under section 5 of the Act of 1991.

(6) (a) Where an application is duly made by the council of a county under subsection (4), the Government may by order change the name of the administrative county to such other name as they think fit.

(b) An order under this subsection shall come into operation on the 1st day of January next following the expiration of six months from the date of the order.

(7) Regulations may be made by the Minister under this subsection as regards the general operation of subsections (4), (5) and (6) and such regulations may include requirements in relation to an application under subsection (4), consultation by a council with specified persons prior to the making of such application, public notice under subsection (5) (a) (i), and the giving of notice to specified persons of an order made under subsection (6).

(8) (a) Where an order is made under subsection (6) changing the name of an administrative county from its existing name to a new name, then, on and from the date on which the order comes into operation every reference in any instrument, document or map to the existing name shall be construed as a reference to the new name.

(b) A change of the name of an administrative county by an order under subsection (6) shall not affect any rights or obligations of any authority or person or render defective any legal proceedings, and any legal proceedings may be continued as if there were no change of name.

(9) Without prejudice to any other provision of this section the council of a county established by section 11 shall, not later than one year after the establishment day consider the question of the name of its administrative county.

10. —(1) As soon as may be after the enactment of this Act the commissioner shall prepare for each of the proposed counties a map, in quadruplicate, drawn to such convenient scale and in such convenient number of separate sheets as the commissioner thinks fit, showing the boundaries of the proposed county and when such maps have been prepared, the commissioner shall seal each such map and shall, as soon as may be thereafter, deposit them as follows, namely, one of them in the principal office of the commissioner, another in the offices of the Minister, one in the principal office of Dublin Corporation and one in the principal office of the relevant county council when established.

(2) In preparing the said maps the commissioner shall, at the request of the Minister notwithstanding—

(a) any description in this or in any other enactment of any boundary of the city, the county or any other county, or of an electoral county, or of any alteration of such, or

(b) any such boundary as shown on any map prepared pursuant to any enactment prior to the commencement of this section,

fix the boundary of any of the proposed counties so as to avoid any minor anomaly such as the division of any building, other structure or public open space by such boundary or to bring it into conformity with any description referred to in paragraph (a).

(3) Every map deposited pursuant to subsection (1) shall be retained in the office in which it is so deposited, and each such map, or true copies thereof, shall be open for inspection free of charge at the office (other than the office of the Minister) in which it is so deposited by any person at any time at which such office is open for the transaction of public business, and it shall be lawful for the commissioner, the Corporation or the council to prepare and supply to any person requesting the same a true copy of any map so deposited or any particular part thereof and to charge for such copy such sum as the commissioner, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, or the Corporation or council may fix.

(4) It shall be the duty of the commissioner and of the Corporation and the council, respectively, whenever required so to do by any Court of Justice, to prepare and produce to the Court a true copy of the map deposited with such person pursuant to subsection (1) or any specified part thereof and to verify the copy to such Court by the oath of an officer of the commissioner, Corporation or council, and the Court shall receive the copy in evidence and thereupon the copy shall, unless the contrary is shown, be sufficient evidence of the boundary (in so far as the same is shown on the copy) of the county to which the copy purports to relate, notwithstanding any discrepancy between the copy and any other description of a boundary or any ambiguity or uncertainty in such description or in the application thereof.

11. —(1) On the establishment day a council shall stand established in each of the administrative counties established by section 9 and each such council shall consist of a cathaoirleach and councillors.

(2) Each of the councils established by subsection (1) shall have, so far as is consistent with this Act or any regulations made thereunder, the functions which are for the time being vested by law in the councils of administrative counties generally and such other functions as were immediately before the establishment day vested by law in the county council and, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, the law which for the time being applies in respect of the councils of administrative counties generally and the law which immediately before that day applied in respect of the county council in particular, shall, insofar as is consistent with this Act or any regulations made thereunder, apply to the said councils.

(3) Pending the elections to councils of counties next after the establishment day article 81 of the Local Elections Regulations, 1965 shall have effect subject to the requirement that the annual meeting of each council established by subsection (1) shall be held within the period within which the county council would have been required to hold its annual meeting if this Act had not been enacted.

(4) Article 11 of the Second Schedule to the Local Government (Reorganisation) Act, 1985 shall continue to apply, in accordance with the provisions of that article, to hereditaments to which it applied prior to the establishment day and for the purpose of such continuation a reference to the county rate in that article shall be deemed to be a reference to the rate of the county council established by section 11 in whose administrative county the hereditament is situate.

(5) Each council established by subsection (1) shall, as soon as may be after its establishment, provide itself with a seal.

12. —(1) The number of members of a council established by section 11 shall be that set out in column (2) of the Table to this subsection opposite the mention in column (1) thereof of that council.

TABLE

(2) The persons who immediately before the establishment day were members of the area committee for South Dublin, Fingal or Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown shall be regarded for all purposes as having been elected to the council of the relevant administrative county and shall on that day become and be members of that council and the chairman of the area committee shall become and be the cathaoirleach of that council.

(3) (a) As soon as may be after the making of an order under section 7 the person who is to be cathaoirleach of the relevant council shall, following consultation with the area manager for that committee, fix a day, being a day not later than ten days after the establishment day, to be the day of the first meeting of that council.

(b) If for any reason the day of the first meeting of such council is not fixed, or having been fixed such meeting is not held, the meeting shall be held on such day as the Minister may fix.

13. —(1) On the establishment day there shall stand established an office of county manager in respect of each of the counties established by section 9 and a person who, immediately before that day, held in a permanent capacity an office of area manager shall, in pursuance of section 22 of the Act of 1991, stand appointed to the office of county manager for the appropriate county and shall accordingly be a manager for the purposes of the County Management Acts, 1940 to 1993.

(2) For the purposes of section 47 (1) of the Act of 1991 and notwithstanding the provisions of section 47 (2) of the said Act a period served in an office of county manager referred to in subsection (1) by a person appointed to such office by virtue of that subsection shall be deemed to exclude the period served by the person concerned in the office of area manager provided that the person concerned sends a written communication signifying agreement to such exclusion to the Minister within a period of six months from the commencement of this section.

(3) On the establishment day a person then holding, whether in a permanent or a temporary capacity—

(a) the office of Dublin City Manager and Town Clerk and the office of Dublin County Manager, shall cease to hold the latter office,

(b) an office of Dublin Assistant City Manager and an office of Assistant County Manager for County Dublin, shall cease to hold the latter office.

(4) The cesser of office of any person by virtue of subsection (3) shall not qualify him for any superannuation allowance, gratuity or like benefit but the remuneration of such a person shall not be reduced by virtue of such cesser of office during his continuance in the office of Dublin City Manager or the office of Dublin Assistant City Manager.

(5) On the establishment day, the office of Dublin County Manager and the offices of Assistant County Manager for County Dublin (including the three offices created by section 21 of the Act of 1991) shall be abolished and cease to exist.

(6) (a) As soon as may be after the establishment day there shall be paid to Dublin Corporation by South Dublin, Fingal and Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Councils the sum for which, but for this Act, Dublin County Council would have been liable pursuant to section 14 (3) and (4) of the County Management Act, 1940 in respect of the local financial year immediately preceding such day.

(b) South Dublin, Fingal and Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council shall, respectively, be liable for such portion of the sum referred to in paragraph (a) as may be agreed between such councils and Dublin Corporation or, in default of agreement, as may be determined by the Minister, or by a person appointed by the Minister for that purpose.

14. — Section 14 (2) of the Local Government (Financial Provisions) Act, 1978 , shall apply to each council established by section 11 for the local financial year in which that council is established as if the reference to expenditure or liability incurred in a previous financial year were to such portion of the expenditure of the county council as would have related to each such council and in the case of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown the said portion with the addition of the expenditure of Dun Laoghaire Corporation and the burial board.