DEPARTMENT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC HEALTH.

To each county council and county borough council; and to all whom it may concern:

WHEREAS by section 2 of the Public Health and Local Government Conferences Act, 1885 (hereinafter referred to as the Principal Act), as adapted by the Adaptation of Enactments Act, 1922 , and the Ministers and Secretaries Act, 1924 , it is enacted in effect that any local authority may when empowered by and subject to any regulations made by the Minister for Local Government and Public Health (which regulations the said Minister is thereby authorised from time to time to make, vary or rescind), pay the reasonable expenses of any member or members or clerk to the local authority attending any conference or meeting of local authorities held for the purpose of discussing any matter which is connected with the duties which devolve on them, and any reasonable expenses incurred in purchasing reports of the proceedings of any such meeting or conference:

AND WHEREAS by section 59 of the Local Government Act, 1925 , it is enacted in effect that the Principal Act shall be construed and have effect as if the expression "local authority" in the Principal Act had the same meaning as in the first mentioned Act; and that the amount of any expenses incurred under the Principal Act by any local authority other than a sanitary authority shall be paid and charged as part of the general expenses of such local authority in the performance of its duties:

AND WHEREAS by section 1 of the Local Government Act, 1925 , it is enacted that the expression "local Authority" in that Act includes a county council and a county borough council:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, the Minister for Local Government and Public Health, in exercise of the powers vested in me in that behalf do hereby order and direct as follows in reference to county and county borough councils, that is to say:

Article 1. I hereby empower a county or county borough council to pay the reasonable expenses incurred by any member or members in attending any such conference or meeting as is mentioned in section 2 of the Principal Act, of the association of county and county borough councils known as the General Council of County Councils and of the executive committee of the said General Council, subject to the following regulations:—

(1) The expenses incurred in attending a conference or meeting shall only be paid in respect of attendance at not more than four conferences or meetings in each year.

(2) The attendance at any conference or meeting of a member or members of a county or county borough council shall be expressly authorised by a resolution passed at a meeting of the council, and any such resolution may authorise generally the attendance of a specified member or members at specified conferences or meetings for such period as the council may determine but not exceeding the period for which the members of the council hold office.

(3) The number of members who may be authorised to attend any conference or meeting:—

(a) of the said General Council shall be not more than three;

(b) of the executive committee of the said General Council shall be one.

Article 2. This Order may be referred to as "the Conferences (General Council of County Councils) Order, 1926 ".

GIVEN under My Seal of Office, this Eighteenth day of February, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Nine Hundred and Twenty-six.

(Signed) SÉAMUS DE BÚRCA,

Minister for Local Government and Public Health.