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BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:
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Definition.
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1.
—In this Act “Principal Act” means
the Local Government Act 2001
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Amendment of Principal Act — insertion of new section 13A
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2.
—(1) The Principal Act is amended by inserting the following after section 13:
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“Application of disqualification to members of Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann.
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13A.—(1) A person who is a member of either House of the Oireachtas is disqualified from being elected or co-opted to, or from being a member of, a local authority.
(2) In respect of local elections to be held in the year 2004 and thereafter, section 13(1) shall be read as if the following were substituted for paragraph (e):
‘(e) is a member of Dáil Éireann or Seanad Éireann, or’.”.
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(2) This section comes into operation and applies with respect to the local elections to be held in the year 2004 and thereafter.
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Amendment of Principal Act — insertion of new section 237 A.
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3.
—The Principal Act is amended by inserting the following after section 237:
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“Regulations relating to members of House of Oireachtas.
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237A.—(1) In this section ‘dealing’ in relation to a member of either House of the Oireachtas means a dealing with such a member in his or her capacity as such a member.
(2) Local authorities shall conduct their dealings with members of either House of the Oireachtas in accordance with regulations under subsection (3).
(3) The Minister shall make regulations for the purposes of subsection (2) and those regulations shall include provisions in relation to—
(a) the supply, without charge, of notice, agenda and minutes of local authority meetings to members of either such House,
(b) the supply by local authorities of other specified documentation or other specified information.
(c) correspondence with such members by local authorities,
(d) arrangements to facilitate access by such members to information, and communication generally by local authorities with such members, and
(e) such other matters as the Minister may consider appropriate for the purposes of subsection (2).
(4) Nothing in this section derogates from—
(a) section 4,
(b) the functions of a local authority as specified in section 63(1)(a), or
(c) the role of local authority members as locally elected public representatives.”.
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Consequential and other amendments to Principal Act.
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4.
—Each section of the Principal Act mentioned in column 1 of the Schedule to this Act is amended to the extent specified in column 2 of that Schedule opposite such mention.
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Amendment of section 97 of Planning and Development Act 2000.
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5.
—
Section 97 of the Planning and Development Act 2000
is amended in clause (II) of subsection (12)(b)(ii) by substituting “0.1 hectares” for “0.2 hectares”.
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Amendment of Local Elections Regulations 1995.
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6.
—The Local Elections Regulations 1995 (S.I. No. 297 of 1995) are amended—
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(a) by deleting “Fourth” in paragraph (aa) of article 51(2), (inserted by section 54(b)(ii) of
the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2001
),
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(b) by deleting in article 80(1) “the candidates shall in the case of election be determined to be elected in the order in which their names are drawn,” in the definition of “determine by lot”,
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(c) by deleting article 88, (substituted by section 54(k) of
the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2001
),
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(d) by substituting in article 124(1) “Subject to article 125, where” for “Where”,
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(e) by substituting the following article for article 125:
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“Person elected for more than one local authority.
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125.—(1) Where, at an election, a person is elected as a member for two or more local authorities and
section 14 of the Local Government Act 2001
would be applicable to such person, then the person shall, within the period of three days after the return is made of persons elected to be members of those local authorities, by notice in writing signed by the person and delivered to the clerk or secretary of each of those local authorities, declare which one of those authorities the person chooses to represent, and if such declaration is not so delivered within the said period, the person shall, at the end of the said period, be deemed to have chosen to represent the local authority of the local electoral area in respect of which the person received the greatest number of first preference votes.
(2) In cases where the person is elected with an equal number of first preference votes in two or more local electoral areas at elections in two or more local authorities, regard shall be had to the total numbers of votes credited to the elected member at the first count in those elections at which the member had an unequal number of votes and the local authority at which the member has the highest number of votes at that count shall be deemed to have been chosen. Where the numbers of votes credited to the member were equal at all counts at the elections, the returning officer of the local authority where the member ordinarily resides or who is designated by the Minister shall determine by lot which of the local authorities the elected member shall be deemed to have chosen, that is to say by—
(a) writing the names of the local authorities concerned on similar slips of paper,
(b) folding those slips so as to prevent identification, and
(c) mixing and drawing at random those slips,
and the local authority whose name is so first drawn shall be the local authority deemed to have been chosen.
(3) Where, in pursuance of this article, a person chooses, or is deemed to have chosen, to represent a particular local authority, the person shall be deemed not to have been elected for any other local authority and the consequential vacancy or vacancies in the membership of the other local authority shall be regarded as casual vacancies occurring on the day on which the newly-elected members come into office under
section 17 of the Local Government Act 2001
and shall be filled accordingly.
(4) Where, under this article, a member chooses or is deemed to have chosen a local authority to represent and that member has been elected for more than one local electoral area for that authority, article 124 shall apply as to the area to be represented by the member.”.
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Repeals.
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7.
—The following provisions of the Principal Act are repealed:
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(a) section 25(1)(b) and (d) and section 35,
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(b) Chapter 3 of Part 5 (sections 39 to 43),
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(c) section 217(1)(c), and
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(d) Schedule 9.
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Short title, construction and collective citation.
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8.
—(1) This Act may be cited as
the Local Government (No. 2) Act 2003
.
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(2) The Local Government Acts 1925 to 2003 and this Act shall be read together as one and this Act shall be included in the collective citation “Local Government Acts 1925 to 2003”.
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