School Attendance Act, 1926

Appointment of school attendance committees for certain areas.

10.—(1) Each of the county boroughs and urban districts mentioned in the Schedule to this Act shall be a school attendance area, but the council of any of the said county boroughs and urban districts may at any time, subject to the approval of the Minister, divide such borough or district into two or more school attendance areas.

(2) In every school attendance area in the said county boroughs and urban districts there shall be a school attendance committee and the first school attendance committee in each of the said school attendance areas shall consist of the persons who immediately before the commencement of this Act were members of the school attendance committee appointed under the Irish Education Act, 1892, for that area and such persons shall hold office as members of the said first school attendance committee until the time prescribed by the Minister under this section for the commencement of the term of office of their successors.

(3) The members of each school attendance committee in the said school attendance areas (other than the members of the first school attendance committee and members appointed to fill casual vacancies) shall be appointed triennially at such times as shall be prescribed by the Minister under this section and shall (unless they previously die, resign or are removed) hold office for three years from the time prescribed by the Minister under this section for the commencement of their term of office.

(4) Every school attendance committee (other than the first school attendance committee) in each of the said school attendance areas shall, if a Juvenile Advisory Committee established by or under the control of the Minister for Industry and Commerce exists in the school attendance area at the time of a triennial appointment of members, consist of eleven members during the succeeding triennial period, and shall, if no such Juvenile Advisory Committee exists in the area at the time of such triennial appointment, consist of ten members during the succeeding triennial period.

(5) Of the members of a school attendance committee appointed under this section, each one of five members shall, so far as such persons are available, be either a manager or a patron of a national or other suitable school in the school attendance area, and one other member shall be a teacher in a national or other suitable school in the school attendance area, and, when the committee consists of eleven members, one other member shall be a member of the Juvenile Advisory Committee in the school attendance area.

(6) Five members of every school attendance committee appointed under this section shall be appointed by the Minister, and at least one of the members so appointed shall be a teacher in a national or other suitable school in the school attendance area.

(7) When a school attendance committee appointed under this section consists of ten members, five of such members shall be appointed by the council of the county borough or urban district in which the school attendance area is situated, of which five members one at least shall be a manager or a patron of a national or other suitable school in the school attendance area, and when the school attendance committee consists of eleven members six of such members shall be appointed by the said council, of which six members one at least shall be such manager or patron as aforesaid and one other shall be a member of the Juvenile Advisory Committee in the school attendance area.

(8) The Minister, after consultation with the Minister for Local Government and Public Health, may by order prescribe the times and mode of appointment of members of school attendance committees by the councils of the said county boroughs and urban districts and by the Minister respectively, the time of commencement of the period of office of the members of such committees, the time and mode of filling casual vacancies in such committees and the period of office of persons appointed to fill such vacancies, and the times of meeting, quorum, conduct of business, and keeping of accounts of such committees.

(9) An officer of the Minister duly authorised in that behalf by the Minister shall be entitled to be present at any meeting of a school attendance committee and to address such committee, but not to vote, on any matter under consideration by the committee at such meeting.