Committee Reports > List of Committees > Seanad > 1955 > Select Committee on Statutory Instruments > Report No. 01 (1955) - Statutory Instruments

APPENDIX XV.

Post Office Savings Bank Regulations, 1921 (Amendment) Regulations, 1954 (S.I. No. 277 of 1954).

1 Aibreán, 1955.

Rúnaí,

Roinn Poist agus Telegrafa.

I am directed by the Select Committee on Statutory Instruments to state that they have had under consideration the Post Office Savings Bank Regulations, 1921 (Amendment) Regulations, 1954 (S.I. 277 of 1954) which are purported to be made in exercise of the powers conferred on the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs by the Post Office Savings Bank Acts, 1861 to 1920, and of every and any other power enabling. They have considered the regulations in particular in relation to the following provisions of the Savings Bank Act, 1920:—

“6. —(1) Before any regulations are made either by the Postmaster-General with respect to the Post Office savings bank or by the Treasury with respect to trustee savings banks, a draft thereof shall be laid before each House of Parliament for a period of not less than twenty days during the session of Parliament, and, if either House before the expiration of that period presents an Address to His Majesty against the draft or any part thereof, no further proceedings shall be taken thereon, but without prejudice to the making of any new draft regulations.

(2) All regulations made by the Postmaster-General or by the Treasury as aforesaid shall come into operation on the date specified therein in that behalf, and shall have effect as if enacted in this Act.”

The Select Committee assume that the regulations under consideration are not the draft envisaged in section 6 (1), in virtue of the fact that they bear a statutory instrument number and further are not described as a draft. They also understand that no similar document purporting to be a draft of the regulations has been laid. It therefore appears to them that unless there is a relevant amending provision apart from the statutes cited in the regulations, the statutory requirements have not been complied with and in consequence that the regulations may not be valid.

They would, therefore, be glad to be furnished with a memorandum on the matter, indicating in addition whether any previous regulations are similarly affected.

A reply before the 14th instant would be appreciated.

Cléireach an Rogha-Choiste.

Memorandum from the Department of Posts and Telegraphs.

Section 6 (1) of the Savings Bank Act, 1920, requires

“that before any regulations are made either by the Postmaster-General with respect to the Post Office Savings Bank, or by the Treasury with respect to trustee savings banks, a draft thereof shall be laid before each House of Parliament for a period of not less than twenty days during the session of Parliament, and, if either House before the expiration of that period presents an address to His Majesty against the draft or any part thereof, no further proceedings shall be taken thereon, but without prejudice to the making of any new draft regulations.”

The Minister for Posts and Telegraphs desired to eliminate the provision in Regulation 29 of the Post Office Savings Bank Regulations, 1921 (S.R. & O. 1921, No. 1532), requiring an acknowledgement to be transmitted to the depositor by him upon his receiving information of any deposit of the amount of £20 or upwards, and to substitute therefor a provision requiring an acknowledgment to be transmitted to the depositor by him upon his receiving information of any deposit of the amount of £50 or upwards. The Minister also desired to raise to £5 the limit of £1 fixed by Regulation 45 of the Post Office Savings Bank Regulations, 1921, for withdrawals from the Post Office Savings Bank without previous notice.

Most of the statutes only require a copy of the order to be tabled in each House of the Oireachtas after it has been made and this procedure was followed, it not being realised that the statutory requirements in this case were different. The Department has been legally advised that in the circumstances the regulations are null and void and a fresh draft of the required order has been placed on the table of both Houses to regularise the position.

No previous regulations are similarly affected.