DEPARTMENT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC HEALTH.

To every Local Authority; and to all others whom it may concern.

WHEREAS by sections 2 and 4 of the Public Health and Local Government Conferences Act, 1885 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act"), it is enacted as follows:—

"2. Any local authority may, when empowered by and subject to any regulations made by the Local Government Board in that behalf (which regulations the said Board is hereby authorised from time to time to make, vary, or rescind), pay the reasonable expenses of any member or members or clerk to the local authority attending any conference or meeting of members of local authorities held for the purpose of discussing any matter which is connected with the duties which devolve on them, and any reasonable expenses incurred in purchasing reports of the proceedings of any such meeting or conference, and may charge the amount to any rates applicable to the general purposes of the Public Health Act, 1875, within their district."

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"4. In the application of this Act to Ireland:—

(a) The term `Local Government Board' shall mean the Local Government Board for Ireland:

(b) The Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878, shall be substituted for the Public Health Act. 1875.

(c) The expression `local authority' shall mean rural sanitary authority and urban sanitary authority."

AND WHEREAS by section 23 of the Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1896, it is enacted that in the application to Ireland of the Act, the expression "clerk to the local authority" shall include any executive sanitary officer, borough surveyor, or engineer or other officer duly appointed by the local authority to attend conferences or meetings under the Act:

AND WHEREAS by section 59 of the Local Government Act, 1925 , it is enacted that the Act shall be construed and have effect as if the expression "local authority" therein had the same meaning as in that Act, and that the amount of any expenses incurred under the Act by any local authority other than a sanitary authority shall be paid and charged as part of the general expenses of such local authority in the performance of its duties:

AND WHEREAS by two Orders bearing date the 23rd day of January, 1913, the Local Government Board for Ireland did make certain regulations subject to which councils of urban districts and councils of rural districts respectively might pay any reasonable expenses incurred under the Act:

AND WHEREAS the powers of the Local Government Board for Ireland under the Act are now vested in me, the Minister for Local Government and Public Health:

AND WHEREAS I deem it expedient to revoke the said regulations and to make regulations subject to which any local authority may pay any reasonable expenses incurred under the Act:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, the Minister for Local Government and Public Health, do hereby revoke and rescind the said Orders of the 23rd day of January, 1913, and do order and direct as follows, that is to say:—

Article 1. In this Order the expression "secretary or clerk" includes any executive sanitary officer, borough surveyor, or engineer or other officer duly appointed by the local authority to attend conferences or meetings under the Act, and the expression "central conference or meeting" includes two meetings in each year of the executive committee (consisting of not more than twenty members) appointed by or on behalf of the persons holding a central conference or meeting within the meaning of Article 2 of this Order.

Article 2. I hereby empower the local authority of each functional area to pay the reasonable expenses incurred by any member or members or by the secretary or clerk in attending any such conference or meeting as is mentioned in section 2 of the Act, and any reasonable expenses incurred in purchasing reports of the proceedings of any such conference or meeting, subject to the following regulations:—

(1) The expenses incurred in attending a conference or meeting shall only be paid in respect of attendance at a central conference or meeting open to representatives of all local authorities of a particular class, or at a conference or meeting convened for an area including the functional area of the local authority from which the persons attending as representatives are sent and held at a place distant not more than one hundred miles from such functional area.

(2) The attendance at any conference or meeting of a member or members of, or of the secretary or clerk to, the local authority shall be expressly authorised by a resolution passed at a meeting of the local authority, a written or printed notice that the proposal is to be considered at that meeting having been sent, by post or otherwise, to each member of the local authority concerned not less than four days prior to the date of such meeting; and where the attendance of more than one member is authorised, the number of members who may be authorised to attend shall be specified in the resolution.

(3) The maximum number of members who may be authorised to attend any conference or meeting shall be two.

(4) The number of copies which may be purchased by any local authority of the report of a central conference or meeting, or of any conference or meeting for an area including their functional area, shall be such as the local authority may, by resolution, determine.

Article 3. This Order may be referred to as "The Local Conferences Order, 1928".

GIVEN under my Official Seal, this Twenty-fourth day of July, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Nine Hundred and Twenty-eight.

(Signed) RISTEÁRD UA. MAOLCHATHA,

Minister for Local Government and Public Health.