PART VI.

Enforcement of Technical Education.

79. —This Part of this Act applies to persons who have attained the age of sixteen years and have not attained the age of eighteen years and the expression “person to whom this Part of this Act applies” shall be construed and have effect accordingly.

80. —(1) References in this Part of this Act to the vocational education committee for a district to which this Part of this Act applies shall be construed as references to the vocational education committee whose vocational education area is co-terminus with or includes such district.

(2) In this Part of this Act the expression “apprenticeship committee” means any committee hereafter set up by statute under that name to exercise functions in relation to apprenticeship either generally or in reference to particular trades.

81. —(1) The Minister may, if and when he thinks proper so to do, by order declare that any vocational education area or any particular part of a vocational education area shall as from a date to be named in such order be a district to which this Part of this Act applies, and thereupon such vocational education area or such particular part thereof shall, as from such date and so long as such order remains in force, be a district to which this Part of this Act applies.

(2) Whenever the Minister makes an order under the foregoing sub-section declaring a particular area to be a district to which this Part of this Act applies and such area is neither co-terminous with nor included in a county or other borough mentioned in the Fourth Schedule to this Act, he shall, after consultation with the Minister for Justice, by the same order prescribe the rank and station of the officer of the G[html]rda Síoch[html]na who is to be the enforcing authority for such district for the purposes of this Part of this Act.

(3) The Minister may at any time by order revoke or amend an order previously made by him under sub-section (1) of this section but he shall not revoke or amend an order made after consultation with the Minister for Justice without consulting with such Minister in relation to such revocation or amendment.

(4) Every order made by the Minister under this section shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made, and if a resolution is passed by either such House within the next subsequent twenty-one days on which that House has sat annulling such order, such order shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under such order.

82. —(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, whenever the Minister makes an order under this Part of this Act declaring a particular area to be a district to which this Part of this Act applies, he shall, by another order, specify the trades which are to be designated trades for the purposes of this Part of this Act in such district, and may from time to time by subsequent orders amend in such manner as he thinks proper the list of trades so specified, and every trade which is for the time being so specified by such first-mentioned order or by such order as so amended shall, for the purposes of this Part of this Act, be a designated trade in such district.

(2) The Minister shall, before making an order under this section specifying a particular trade to be a designated trade for the purposes of this Part of this Act in a district to which this Part of this Act applies or before amending such an order consult, where there is for the time being an apprenticeship committee for such trade whose functional area is co-terminous with or includes such district, such apprenticeship committee or, where there is for the time being no such apprenticeship committee, representatives of employers and employees in such district in such trade.

83. —(1) In every district to which this Part of this Act applies, the vocational education committee for such district shall, in every local financial year, provide such and so many courses of instruction in the nature of technical education as such committee shall consider necessary having regard to the number and nature of the designated trades in such district.

(2) Every course of instruction provided under this section by the vocational education committee for a district to which this Part of this Act applies in respect of a designated trade in such district shall consist of such number (not exceeding one hundred and eighty) of hours of instruction in each local financial year as the Minister shall, after consultation with, where there is for the time being an apprenticeship committee for such trade whose functional area is co-terminous with or includes such district, such aprenticeship committee or, where there is for the time being no such apprenticeship committee, representatives of employers and employees in such district in such trade, approve.

(3) Every course of instruction provided under this section shall be distributed as regards times and seasons in such manner as may best suit the designated trades in respect of which it is provided.

(4) The instruction to be given at a course of instruction provided under this section shall be such as the vocational education committee providing such course shall, with the approval of the Minister, direct.

(5) Every vocational education committee providing courses of instruction under this section shall make public by advertisement or otherwise the dates for the commencement and termination of such courses and the times and places at which the instruction comprised in such courses will be given.

84. —(1) Every person to whom this Part of this Act applies and who is employed in a district to which this Part of this Act applies at a trade which is a designated trade in such district shall attend the course of instruction provided for the purposes of such trade under this Part of this Act in such district by the vocational education committee.

(2) If any person to whom this Part of this Act applies and who is employed in a district to which this Part of this Act applies at a trade which is a designated trade in such district fails to attend the course of instruction which he is required by this section to attend, he shall, unless he satisfies the court that such failure was due to sickness or any other unavoidable cause, be guilty of an offence under this section and be liable on summary conviction thereof, in the case of a first offence, to a fine not exceeding twenty shillings and, in the case of a second or any subsequent offence, to a fine not exceeding forty shillings.

(3) If the parent of a person to whom this Part of this Act applies and who is employed in a district to which this Part of this Act applies at a trade which is a designated trade in such district has conduced to or connived at the failure of such person to attend the course of instruction which he is required by this section to attend, such parent shall, unless he satisfies the court that such failure was due to sickness or other unavoidable cause not occasioned by such parent, be guilty of an offence under this sub-section and be liable on summary conviction thereof, in the case of a first offence, to a fine not exceeding twenty shillings and, in the case of a second or any subsequent offence, to a fine not exceeding forty shillings.

85. —(1) For the purposes of this Part of this Act the enforcing authority for a district to which this Part of this Act applies shall be—

(a) in every such district which is co-terminous with or included in a county or other borough mentioned in the Fourth Schedule to this Act, the vocational education committee for that district; and

(b) in every such district which is neither co-terminous with nor included in any of the said county or other boroughs, the officer of the G[html]rda Síoch[html]na for the time being holding the rank and occupying the station prescribed in that behalf by the order made by the Minister under this Part of this Act declaring such district to be a district to which this Part of this Act applies.

(2) It shall be the duty of every enforcing authority to keep the prescribed registers and records for the purposes of this Part of this Act and to permit such registers and records to be inspected at all reasonable times by an inspector.

(3) Every officer of the G[html]rda Síoch[html]na who is an enforcing authority under this Part of this Act may exercise all or any of his functions as such enforcing authority by or through any one or more of the members of the G[html]rda Síoch[html]na under his command, and every member of the G[html]rda Síoch[html]na by or through whom such functions are so exercised shall for the purposes of this Part of this Act be an attendance officer of such enforcing authority.

86. —(1) Every person carrying on in a district to which this Part of this Act applies a trade which is a designated trade in such district shall, if required so to do by notice in writing in the prescribed form served on or left for him at his place of business by the enforcing authority for such district, furnish to such authority within the time and in the manner specified in such notice the particulars specified in such notice of any persons employed by him who are persons to whom this Part of this Act applies.

(2) Every person carrying on in a district to which this Part of this Act applies a trade which is a designated trade in such district who fails to furnish in accordance with this section all or any particulars which he is duly required under this section so to furnish, or who so furnishes any such particulars which are to his knowledge false or misleading in any material respect, shall be guilty of an offence under this section and be liable on summary conviction thereof to a fine not exceeding twenty shillings.

87. —(1) It shall be the duty of every employer of a person to whom this Part of this Act applies and who is attending or desires to attend, in pursuance of this Part of this Act, a course of instruction provided under this Part of this Act to afford, so far as the same may be necessary, such person time and liberty to attend such course of instruction without any deduction from, wages or any addition to the hours of employment or reckoning such time as lost.

(2) If any employer fails or neglects to comply with the requirements of this section he shall be guilty of an offence under this section and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof, in the case of a first offence, to a fine not exceeding twenty shillings, and, in the case of a second or any subsequent offence, to a fine not exceeding forty shillings.

88. —It shall be the duty of the enforcing authority for a district to which this Part of this Act applies to take such steps and institute all such proceedings as may be necessary for the enforcement of this Part of this Act in such district.

89. —(1) Every vocational education committee which is an enforcing authority for the purposes of this Part of this Act shall by order appoint such officers as it thinks fit to be attendance officers for the purposes of this Part of this Act.

(2) Every attendance officer appointed under this section shall when exercising any authority or power under this Part of this Act as such officer produce on demand and show the order appointing him such officer to any person in relation to whom he is exercising such authority or power.

(3) A document produced by a person claiming to be an attendance officer and represented by him to be an order appointing him such officer and purporting on its face to be such order shall, until the contrary is proved, be evidence that such person is an attendance officer.

90. —All notices and other documents issued or served under this Part of this Act by an enforcing authority shall be sufficiently authenticated by the signature thereon of an attendance officer of such authority.

91. —A prosecution for an offence under this Part of this Act may be instituted and prosecuted at the suit of any attendance officer of an enforcing authority as prosecutor.

92. —(1) In any prosecution under this Part of this Act, a certificate purporting to be signed by a qualified medical practitioner that the person to whom the prosecution relates is or was at any specified time suffering from a specified physical or mental malady or injury and that such malady or injury was of such a nature as to render such person unfit to attend a course of instruction or that some person residing in the house in which such first-mentioned person resides is or was suffering from a specified physical or mental malady or injury shall, until the contrary is proved, be evidence of such of the facts aforesaid as are stated in such certificate.

(2) In any prosecution for an offence under this Part of this Act, the Court may order the costs incurred in relation to such prosecution by the prosecutor or the person prosecuted to be paid by the person prosecuted or the prosecutor (as the case may require) and may fix the amount of such costs.

93. —All expenses incurred by a vocational education committee in carrying this Part of this Act into effect shall be paid out of the vocational education fund of such committee.