§ Council of Ireland.
§ 3.—(1) The constitution of the Council of Ireland shall, if identical Acts for the purpose are passed by the Parliament of the Irish Free State and the Parliament of Northern Ireland, be altered in accordance with those Acts.
§ (2) The appointed day for the transfer in relation to Northern Ireland of the powers, which by the Principal Act are made powers of the Council of Ireland, shall be such clay as may hereafter be fixed by Order in Council not being earlier than the day on which any such identical Acts as aforesaid come into operation or the expiration of the period of five years from the passing of this Act, Whichever may first happen.
§
THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE moved, at the end of Clause 3 of the First. Schedule, to insert:
Provided that the appointed day for the purposes of so much of section ten of the principal
207
Act as enacts that the rates, fares, tolls, dues, and other charges directed by the Minister of Transport under the Ministry of Transport Act, 1919, and in force on the appointed day, may be charged until fresh provision shall be made by the Council of Ireland, or the Parliament of the United Kingdom, with regard to the amount of any such rates, fares, tolls, dues and other charges' shall be the date of the passing of this Act; but until such fresh provision is made, the Railway and Canal Commission shall have the like power of modifying such charges in Northern Ireland as is by section sixty of the Railways Act, 1921, conferred on the rates tribunal as respects railways in Great Britain.
§ The noble Duke said: In consequence of changes in the Bill which alter the effect of the 1920 Act in relation to the railways of Northern Ireland, I am informed that unless provision is made the railways of Northern Ireland would on February 15 next have to revert to their pre-war charging powers. The Amendment is for the purpose of restoring the position to that which was intended by the 1920 Act. The British Parliament will have the power of revising the charging vowels at any period. It is right that if these charging powers are conferred they should be subject to the same modification as is applicable to other charging powers in the case of British railways. The Amendment only reverts to what was originally intended by the 1920 Act.
§
Amendment moved—
Page 9, line 22, at end insert the said words.—(The Duke of Devonshire.)
§ On Question, Amendment agreed to.
§ First Schedule, as amended, agreed to.