Committee Reports > List of Committees > Dáil > 1950 > Committee of Public Accounts > Interim and Final Report - Appropriation Accounts 1947 - 1948

APPENDIX X.

DISPOSAL OF FEES TAKEN BY MEMBERS OF THE GARDA SIOCHANA UNDER THE WEIGHTS AND MEASURES ACTS, 1878 to 1904.

On the occasion of my appearance before the Committee of Public Accounts on the 1st December, 1949, I was asked whether I could say how the “general” fees under the Weights and Measures Acts taken by members of the Garda Síochána were disposed of. By the expression “general” fees was meant the fees taken by members of the Garda Síochána other than the fees taken for verifying and stamping bottles or, to put it in other words, the fees taken by ex officio Inspectors of Weights and Measures in contradistinction to the fees taken by members of the Garda Síochána who are special Inspectors for the purpose of the Weights and Measures Act, 1928. In my reply I said that I would have to have notice of that question, but that I assumed that the “general” fees were paid into the Exchequer.

On looking into the matter, I find that I was quite wrong in assuming that this was the case, as the “general” fees, as above defined, are paid into the Garda Síochána Reward Fund, except in so far as such fees are required to defray the expenses of carrying out the provisions of the Weights and Measures Acts, and are in fact the principal source of revenue of the Fund. The statutory authority for this arrangement will be found in the provisions of section 18 of the Garda Síochána Act, 1924, which are as follows:—

18. There shall be established in accordance with regulations to be made by the Minister for Finance a fund to be called the “Garda Síochána Reward Fund,” which shall be administered in such manner as the Minister, with the concurrence of the Minister for Finance, may from time to time prescribe, for reward or benefit of members of the Garda Síochána, and there shall be paid into that fund the following sums, viz.:—

(a) all disciplinary fines imposed on any member of the Garda Síochána except fines imposed to meet damage caused by such member; and

(b) all fines, penalties, proportions of fines or penalties, and damages awarded by any court, judge, or justice or otherwise payable to any member of the Garda Síochána on any summary conviction; and

(c) all fines and penalties and proportions of fines or penalties directed by or under any Act for the time being in force to be paid into the said Fund; and

(d) all fees allowed by law to be taken by members of the Garda Síochána as ex officio inspectors of weights and measures in so far as such fees are not applicable to the payment of expenses incurred in carrying out the provisions of the Weights and Measures Acts; and

(e) all fines directed by this Act to be paid into the said Fund.

(Signed) THOMAS J. COYNE,

Secretary,

Department of Justice.

24ú Eanáir, 1950.