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39 1976

WILDLIFE ACT, 1976

Second Schedule

Provisions which may be included in an order under Section 14

Section 14 .

1. The Board shall be a body corporate with perpetual succession and power to sue and be sued in its corporate name and to acquire, hold and dispose of land.

2. The Board shall consist of a chairman and not less than a prescribed number of ordinary members.

3. (1) Where the chairman or an ordinary member of the Board is nominated as a candidate for election to either House of the Oireachtas or as a member of Seanad Éireann, he shall thereupon cease to be a member of the Board.

(2) A person who is for the time being entitled under the Standing Orders of either House of the Oireachtas to sit therein shall be disqualified from being a member of the Board.

4. The chairman and each ordinary member of the Board shall be appointed by the Minister and the Minister when making the appointment shall fix his term of office and, subject to such other provisions of this Schedule as may be relevant, he shall hold his office on such terms and conditions as the Minister, with the consent of the Minister for the Public Service, determines.

5. A member of the Board may at any time resign his office by letter addressed to the Minister and the resignation shall take effect as on and from the date of the receipt of the letter by the Minister.

6. The Minister may remove from office a member of the Board who has become incapable through ill-health of efficiently performing his duties or whose removal appears to the Minister to be necessary for the effective performance by the Board of its functions.

7. A member of the Board (other than the chairman) may be appointed by the Minister from among his serving officers.

8. A member of the Board shall be paid by the Board such remuneration (if any) and allowances for expenses as the Minister, with the consent of the Minister for the Public Service, determines.

9. A member of the Board whose term of office expires by the effluxion of time shall be eligible for reappointment.

10. Where a casual vacancy occurs among the members of the Board, the Minister shall appoint a person to fill the vacancy as soon as possible.

11. (1) The Board shall keep in such form as may be approved by the Minister, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, all proper and usual accounts of all moneys received or expended by it.

(2) The Board shall keep a profit and loss account and a balance sheet.

(3) The Board shall keep such special accounts (if any) as the Minister, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, may from time to time direct.

(4) All accounts kept pursuant to this Article shall be submitted by the Board to the Comptroller and Auditor General for audit.

(5) Immediately after their audit, a copy of the accounts (including any special accounts) kept by the Board pursuant to this Article, a copy of the balance sheet (if any) and a copy of the Comptroller and Auditor General's report on the accounts shall be presented to the Minister who shall cause copies thereof to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas.

12. There may, subject to such conditions, if any, as the Minister thinks proper, be paid to the Board in each financial year out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas a grant or grants of such amount or amounts as the Minister, with the consent of the Minister for Finance and after consultation with the Board in relation to its programme of expenditure for that year, may fix.

13. (1) The Minister, with the consent of the Minister for the Public Service, may appoint such officers and servants as are in his opinion necessary to assist the Board in the performance of its functions.

(2) The officers and servants so appointed shall hold office on such terms and receive such remuneration as the Minister for the Public Service determines.

14. (1) The Board shall hold such and so many meetings as may be necessary for the performance of its functions.

(2) The Minister may fix the date, time and place of the first meeting of the Board.

15. The quorum for a meeting of the Board shall be such as is specified in an order made under section 14 of this Act and which relates to the Board and is for the time being in force.

16. Each member of the Board at a meeting thereof shall have a vote.

17. Every question at a meeting of the Board shall be determined by a majority of votes of the members present and, in the event that voting is equally divided, the chairman shall have a casting vote.

18. Subject to having a quorum, the Board may act notwithstanding a vacancy among its members.

19. Subject to the provisions of any order made under section 14 of this Act and which relates to the Board, the Board may provide for any matters of procedure.

20. The Board shall, as soon as may be after its establishment, provide itself with a seal.

21. The Board may perform any of its functions through or by any of its officers duly authorised by the Board in that behalf.

22. The seal of the Board shall be authenticated by the signature of two members of the Board or by the signature of a member of the Board and of an officer or servant of the Board authorised by the Board to act in that behalf.

23. Judicial notice shall be taken of the seal of the Board and every document purporting to be an instrument made by the Board and to be sealed with the seal (purporting to be authenticated in accordance with Article 22 of this Schedule) of the Board shall be received in evidence and be deemed to be such instrument without proof unless the contrary is shown.

24. (1) The Minister may, with the approval of the Minister for the Public Service, make and carry out according to its terms a scheme for the granting of pensions, gratuities or other allowances to or in respect of the chairman and ordinary members of the Board appointed in a wholetime capacity ceasing to hold office, other than persons in respect of whom an award under the Superannuation Acts, 1834 to 1963, may be made.

(2) A scheme under this Article may provide that the termination of the appointment of the chairman or of an ordinary member of the Board during that person's term of office shall not preclude the award to him under the scheme of a pension, gratuity or other allowance.

(3) The Minister may, with the approval of the Minister for the Public Service, amend a scheme made by him under this Article.

(4) If any dispute arises as to the claim of any person to, or the amount of, any pension, gratuity or allowance payable in pursuance of a scheme under this Article, such dispute shall be submitted to the Minister who shall refer it to the Minister for the Public Service, whose decision thereon shall be final.

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

(6) Where an established civil servant is definitively transferred to the Board as a member thereof, the superannuation benefits to be granted to him shall, if the Minister for the Public Service in his discretion so directs, be calculated in accordance with the provisions of the Superannuation Acts, 1834 to 1963, as if, during the period of his service as a wholetime member of the Board subsequent to his transfer, he had been an established civil servant and had been paid during that period out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas within the meaning of section 17 of the Superannuation Act, 1859.

25. (1) The Board may accept gifts of money, land or other property upon such terms and conditions (if any) as may be specified by the donor.

(2) The Board shall not accept a gift if the conditions attached by the donor to the acceptance are inconsistent with the functions of the Board.

(3) Any funds of the Board, being a gift or the proceeds of a gift to it, may, subject to any terms or conditions of the gift, be invested by the Board in any manner in which a trustee is empowered by law to invest trust funds.