PART VII.

Miscellaneous

41. —(1) The Minister may exempt a housing authority from compliance with all or any of the provisions of section 201 of the Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878, as respects contracts to be entered into by the housing authority in the exercise of their powers and the performance of their duties under the Housing of the Working Classes Acts or the Labourers Acts.

(2) An exemption granted under subsection (1) of this section as respects contracts to be entered into by a housing authority in the exercise of their powers and the performance of their duties under the Housing of the Working Classes Acts or the Labourers Acts may relate to:—

(a) all contracts so to be entered into,

(b) contracts so to be entered into under a particular scheme, or

(c) contracts so to be entered into in respect of a particular area.

(3) The Minister may attach to an exemption granted under subsection (1) of this section such conditions as he thinks fit and may at any time amend or revoke such exemption.

42. —The Act of 1932 is hereby amended by the substitution, for Article 4 of the Third Schedule thereto, of the following:—

“4. (a) If no objection is duly made by any of the persons upon whom notices are required to be served, or if all objections so made are withdrawn, the Minister may, if he thinks fit, annul the order or confirm the order with or without modification.

(b) If an objection is duly made by any such person and such objection is not withdrawn and, as respects part of the land proposed to be acquired, no objection or only a withdrawn objection or withdrawn objections has or have been made, the Minister may, if he thinks fit, annul the order or confirm the order forthwith with or without modification in so far only as it relates to land to the acquisition of which no objection or the withdrawn objection or withdrawn objections has or have been made and, in so far as it relates to the remaining land proposed to be acquired, cause to be held a public local inquiry into any objection not withdrawn and, having considered such objection and the report of the person who held the inquiry, may then annul the order or confirm the order with or without modification in so far as it relates to such land.

(c) In any other case, the Minister shall cause a public local inquiry to be held and, having considered any objection not withdrawn and the report of the person who held the inquiry, may then annul the order or confirm the order either with or without modification;

Provided that—

(i) the Minister may require any person who has made an objection to state in writing the grounds thereof, and may confirm the order without causing a public local inquiry to be held if he is satisfied that every objection duly made relates exclusively to matters which can be dealt with by the arbitrator by whom the compensation is to be assessed;

(ii) the order as confirmed by the Minister shall not authorize the council of a county to purchase compulsorily any land which the order would not have authorized them so to purchase if it had been confirmed without modification.”

43. —(1) This section applies to a compulsory purchase order made under section 20 of the Act of 1932, as respects which an objection was duly made by any of the persons upon whom notices are required by that Act to be served and such objection was not withdrawn and which has been confirmed by the Minister firstly in so far only as it related to land to the acquisition of which no objection or only a withdrawn objection or withdrawn objections had been made (in this section referred to as “the first confirmation”) and secondly in so far as it related to the remaining land acquired (in this section called “the second confirmation”).

(2) The provisions of this section shall have effect with respect to the validity of an order to which this section applies and the date on which such an order is to come into operation.

(3) As soon as may be after the first confirmation of an order to which this section applies, the council of a county shall publish in one or more than one newspaper circulating in their district a notice in the prescribed form stating that the order has been confirmed in so far as it related to land to the acquisition of which no objection or only a withdrawn objection or withdrawn objections was or were made.

(4) As soon as may be after the second confirmation of an order to which this section applies the council of a county shall publish in one or more than one newspaper circulating in their district a notice in the prescribed form stating that the order has been confirmed, and naming a place where a copy of the order as confirmed, and of the map referred to therein may be seen at all reasonable hours, and shall serve a like notice on every person, who, having given notice to the Minister of his objection to the order, appeared at the public local inquiry in support of his objection.

(5) If any person aggrieved by the second confirmation of an order to which this section applies desires to question its validity on the ground that it is not within the powers of the Labourers Acts or that any requirement of those Acts has not been complied with, he may, within three weeks after the publication of the notice of confirmation, make an application for the purpose to the High Court, and where any such application is duly made the Court:—

(a) may by interim order suspend the operation of the order in so far as it affects any property of the applicant until the final determination of the proceedings; and

(b) if satisfied upon the hearing of the application that the order is not within the powers of the Labourers Acts or that the interests of the applicant have been substantially prejudiced by any requirement of the said Acts not having been complied with may quash the order in so far as it affects any property of the applicant.

(6) Subject to the provisions of subsection (5) of this section any person aggrieved by the first or second confirmation of an order to which this section applies shall not, either before or after such confirmation, question such order by prohibition or certiorari or in any legal proceedings whatsoever and such order shall, as respects land to the acquisition of which no objection was made, become operative at the expiration of three weeks from the date on which notice of its confirmation is published in accordance with the provisions of subsection (3) of this section, and, as respects land to the acquisition of which objection was made, become operative at the expiration of four weeks from the date on which notice of its confirmation is published in accordance with the provisions of subsection (4) of this section.

(7) The provisions of section 17 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1931 (No. 50 of 1931) as applied by subsection (2) of section 20 of the Act of 1932 to compulsory purchase orders made under the said section 20 shall not apply to an order to which this section applies.

44. —(1) In every case in which a grant for the erection of a house is made under section 16 of this Act to a person or public utility society and an increase in the valuation of the tenement, consisting of or including such house, is made on an application for the revision of such valuation by reason solely of such erection, the valuation of such tenement shall be deemed to be reduced for rating purposes by two-thirds of such increase.

(2) In every case in which a grant for the erection of a house is made under section 16 of this Act to a person or public utility society and an increase in the valuation of the tenement consisting of or including such house is made on an application for the revision of such valuation by reason partly of such erection the valuation of such tenement shall be deemed to be reduced for rating purposes by two-thirds of so much of such increase as is attributable to such erection.

(3) Where a grant is made under section 16 of this Act in respect of the reconstruction of a house, the valuation of the tenement consisting of or including such house shall not, on any valuation or revision of the valuation thereof coming into force within seven years after the completion of such reconstruction be increased on account of any increase in the value of such tenement arising from such reconstruction.

(4) In this section the expression “rating purposes” means the following (and no other) purposes, that is to say, the purpose of the assessment and levying of any rate raised by a local authority for the service of the local financial year commencing next after the completion of the erection of the relevant house or for the service of any of the next following six local financial years.

(5) Without prejudice to the generality of the provisions of the immediately preceding subsection of this section restricting the meaning of the expression “rating purposes”, it is hereby enacted in particular that notwithstanding the valuation (in this subsection referred to as the full valuation) of a tenement being deemed under this section to be reduced in relation to any local financial year, every computation for the purposes of the Income Tax Acts of the annual value of such tenement shall be made in like manner as if the full valuation were in force for the purposes of county rate in relation to that local financial year.

45. —(1) The Minister under section 16 or 20 of this Act, or the housing authority, under section 19 of this Act, shall not make a grant in respect of the erection of a house where it is shown to his or their satisfaction that throughout such erection rates of wages have not been paid or conditions of labour observed at least as advantageous to the persons employed in such erection as the appropriate rates of wages or conditions of labour generally recognised by trade unions, in the area in which such house is erected, at the commencement of such erection and the Minister or the housing authority may as a condition of his or their making any such grant require a person or a public utility society (as the case may be) to enter into any undertaking which seems proper to the Minister or to such housing authority as to the rates of wages to be paid or the conditions of labour to be observed in such erection.

(2) Where the Minister or a housing authority has or have made to any person or public utility society under section 16 , 19 or 20 of this Act any grant on condition that the person or the society receiving the grant enter into an undertaking with him or them and such undertaking has not been complied with, the following provisions shall have effect:—

(a) such person or public utility society (as the case may be) shall be liable to repay the Minister or the housing authority the amount of such grant;

(b) such amount may be recovered from such person or public utility society (as the case may be) as a civil debt in any court of competent jurisdiction.