First Previous (PART I. ELECTION AND MEMBERSHIP OF BOARDS OF CONSERVATORS.) Next (PART III. RESTRICTIONS ON THE SALE OF SALMON AND TROUT.)

32 1925

FISHERIES ACT, 1925

PART II.

FINANCE OF BOARDS OF CONSERVATORS.

Alteration of rates of licence duty.

12. —(1) The Fisheries (Ireland) Acts, 1842 to 1909, shall be construed and have effect as if in the Schedule to the Fisheries (Ireland) Act, 1848, there had been inserted the several duties mentioned in the First Schedule to this Act in lieu of the several duties mentioned at numbers 1, 3, 4, 5 and 14 in the said Schedule to the said Fisheries (Ireland) Act, 1848, and notwithstanding anything contained in the Fisheries (Ireland) Acts, 1842 to 1909, no board of conservators shall have authority to diminish or reduce any of the said duties so mentioned in the said First Schedule to this Act.

(2) If any board of conservators shall so determine and resolve a licence for angling with a single salmon rod in their district during the limited period of fourteen days from the date of the licence may be issued and shall be obtainable on or after the 1st day of January next after such determination and resolution on payment of the licence duty of one pound.

(3) The licence duty for long lines for eels shall be two pounds in every district in lieu of such duties for such lines as are now in force, and no board of conservators shall have authority to diminish or reduce the said licence duty of two pounds.

(4) The proviso to section 30 of the Fisheries (Ireland) Act, 1848, is hereby repealed and in lieu thereof it is hereby enacted that no person who shall have taken out a licence for a rod for a calendar year in any district shall be entitled to angle with a rod for salmon in any other district unless and until he shall have taken out a licence for a rod in such other district and paid the licence duty specified in that behalf in the First Schedule to this Act

Rates on fisheries.

13. —(1) Every board of conservators is hereby empowered on or before the 31st day of December in every fishery year to which this section applies to strike a rate on all fisheries within their district rated for the relief of the poor or which but for the exemption conferred by this section would be so rated of such amount per cent, as with the estimated amount of their other income will be sufficient to meet the estimated amount of their expenditure for that fishery year.

(2) Every rate struck by a board of conservators under this section shall be subject to confirmation by the Minister who may confirm the same either without modification or with such modification (whether by way of increase or reduction) as he shall think proper.

(3) Every rate struck by a board of conservators under this section and confirmed (with or without modification) by the Minister shall be duly levied, collected, and recovered by the board in the manner and with the powers provided by the Fisheries (Ireland) Acts, 1842 to 1909, in respect of rates leviable under those Acts.

(4) If a board of conservators shall fail to strike on or before the 31st day of December in any fishery year to which this section applies a rate for that fishery year the Minister may, if he thinks fit so to do, on or before the 28th day of February in that fishery year strike a rate for the district of such board of conservators for such fishery year and in such case the rate so struck by the Minister shall be levied, collected, and recovered by such board of conservators in like manner in all respects as if such rate had been struck by the board and confirmed by the Minister under this section.

(5) Every rate made under this section and every rate struck by the Minister under this section shall be paid by the several persons rated for the same in two moieties on the 1st day of April and the 1st day of September in the fishery year for which the rate is struck, and shall be so paid over and above all or any licence duties paid by such persons under the Fisheries (Ireland) Acts, 1842 to 1909, or this Act for that or any other fishery year.

(6) Every person who is liable to be rated under the Fisheries (Ireland) Acts, 1842 to 1909 as amended by this Act in respect of a fishery shall be exempt from liability for any rate leviable by the council of any county, county borough, or urban district, or the commissioners of any town, in respect of that fishery for the local financial year commencing on the first day of April next after the commencement of this Part of this Act or for any of the nine next succeeding local financial years, and no such council or commissioners shall levy or collect any rate in respect of any such fishery for any of the said local financial years.

(7) If the Minister for Local Government and Public Health shall certify that by reason of the exemption conferred by this section from liability for rates in respect of fisheries, the amount of the rate which but for this sub-section would require to be made and levied upon and in any area for the service of a local financial year ending within ten years after the 1st day of April next following the commencement of this Part of this Act by the council of a county, county borough, or urban district, or the commissioners of a town has been increased by an amount greater than one penny in the pound, the Minister for Fisheries shall out of moneys to be from time to time provided by the Oireachtas pay to such council or commissioners before the end of such local financial year an amount equal to the sum which would be produced by a rate upon and in such area equivalent to the amount in the pound by which such increase exceeds one penny in the pound.

(8) The several provisions in relation to rating contained in the Fisheries (Ireland) Acts, 1842 to 1909, so far as the same are inconsistent with the provisions of this section shall not have effect during any fishery year to which this section applies, but save to that extent the said provisions shall apply to the rates leviable under this section in like manner as they apply to the rates heretofore leviable under the said Acts.

(9) This section applies to the fishery year commencing on the 1st day of October next after the commencement of this Part of this Act and to each of the nine next succeeding fishery years.

Board of conservators to furnish annual estimate.

14. —(1) It shall be the duty of every board of conservators to furnish to the Minister on or before the 30th day of November in every fishery year an estimate of all the monies to be received by them in that fishery year and of the proposed application of such monies and other proposed expenditure for that fishery year.

(2) The Minister may approve either without amendment or with such amendments (whether by way of alteration, addition or omission) as he may think fit, any estimate of proposed expenditure furnished to him pursuant to the foregoing sub-section of this section.

(3) From and after the first day of October next after the commencement of this Part of this Act it shall not be lawful for any board of conservators to incur any expenditure in any fishery year save only such expenditure as is mentioned in the estimate of expenditure for that fishery year as approved of by the Minister under this section and such further expenditure (if any) as may be specially sanctioned by the Minister.

Audit of accounts of boards of conservators.

15. —(1) The accounts of the receipts and payments of every board of conservators shall be made up yearly to the end of each fishery year and such accounts shall be audited by an auditor of the Minister for Local Government and Public Health nominated for the purpose by that Minister.

(2) The following enactments, that is to say, sections 11 to 15 of the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1871, sub-section (2) of section 63 of the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, and sections 20 and 21 of the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1902, as amended or adapted by or under any enactment now in force shall apply to the audit and auditor of the accounts of boards of conservators in the same manner as such enactments as so amended or adapted apply to the audit and auditor of the accounts of the public bodies specified therein, save that the appeal given by those enactments as so amended or adapted from an allowance, disallowance, or surcharge to the Minister for Local Government and Public Health shall lie to the Minister for Fisheries in lieu of the Minister aforesaid and the references in the said enactments as so amended or adapted to the Minister for Local Government and Public Health shall in respect of such appeals be construed and take effect as references to the Minister for Fisheries.

(3) The Minister for Fisheries may by regulations made under this Act prescribe the form in which the accounts of boards of conservators are to be kept, the person by whom and the time within which such accounts are to be produced for audit, the mode of conducting the audit, and any other matter or thing relating to the audit of such accounts which may be necessary to enable this section to have effect.

(4) The Minister for Local Government and Public Health shall from time to time as occasion requires ascertain and determine what proportion of the salary paid to the auditor appointed to audit the accounts of a board of conservators should be charged in respect of such audit, and the amount of such proportion of such salary shall be paid by such board of conservators to the said Minister.