PART III

Area Health Boards

14. —(1) On the establishment day, there shall stand established 3 boards, which shall be known, respectively, as—

(a) the Northern Area Health Board,

(b) the East Coast Area Health Board, and

(c) the South-Western Area Health Board,

and referred to collectively in this Act as “the Area Health Boards”.

(2) Each Area Health Board shall be a body corporate with the power to sue and be sued in its own name and may acquire, hold and dispose of land and other property.

Each Area Health Board shall provide itself with a seal and all courts of justice shall take judicial notice of the seal.

(4) The functional area of each Area Health Board shall be as described in the First Schedule.

15. —(1) An Area Health Board shall perform, with respect to its functional area and on behalf of the Authority, such functions as are specified by the Authority in accordance with section 9 (1) and shall carry out such other functions as provided by this Act or as may from time to time be conferred on it by the Authority.

(2) An Area Health Board shall, with respect to its functional area—

(a) provide, or arrange for the provision of, such services as may be specified in any arrangements entered into with the Authority in accordance with section 10 (2),

(b) plan and co-ordinate the provision of services, in co-operation with persons providing services in the area and with such other persons as it may see fit, and

(c) advise the Authority on the provision of services generally.

(3) An Area Health Board shall—

(a) carry out its functions subject to any general directions which may be given by the Authority, and

(b) co-operate with the Authority and with other Area Health Boards in the co-ordination of services in such manner as the Authority may from time to time determine.

(4) Where an Area Health Board makes an arrangement with a person for the provision of services, it shall put in place systems, procedures and practices to enable it to monitor and evaluate the services so provided.

(5) An Area Health Board shall, notwithstanding that it is exercising functions on behalf of the Authority under this section, be entitled to enforce any rights acquired and shall be liable in respect of any liabilities incurred (including liabilities in tort) in the exercise of those functions in all respects as if it were acting as a principal, and all proceedings for the enforcement of such rights or liabilities shall be brought by or against the Area Health Board in its own name.

(6) Sections 3 and 4 of the No. 3 Act of 1996 (as amended by section 24 ) shall apply to an Area Health Board as if it were a health board and references in those sections to a chief executive officer shall be construed for the purposes of this subsection as including references to an area chief executive.

16. —(1) The Minister shall, in accordance with this section, specify in regulations the membership of an Area Health Board.

(2) Subject to subsections (4), (5) and (6), the Authority shall appoint the members of the Area Health Boards.

(3) The Authority, when appointing a member of an Area Health Board, shall fix such member's period of membership which shall not exceed 5 years.

(4) Each member of an Area Health Board shall be a member of the Authority and where a member of an Area Health Board ceases to be a member of the Authority he or she shall also cease to be a member of the Area Health Board.

(5) Membership of an Area Health Board shall include at least one member of the Authority who has been appointed by each of the following, namely—

(a) the local authorities mentioned in section 11 (2)(a),

(b) the registered professions mentioned in section 11 (2)(b),

(c) the Minister, on the nomination of each of the voluntary service providers mentioned in subparagraphs (i), (ii) and (iii) of section 11 (2)(c), and

(d) the Minister under section 11 (2)(d).

(6) With respect to each Area Health Board, persons appointed to the Authority under section 11 (2)(a) and subsequently appointed by the Authority to an Area Health Board shall exceed the total number of other members of that Area Health Board and be from local electoral areas within the functional area of the Area Health Board.

(7) A member of the Authority who has been appointed to the Authority in accordance with section 11 (2)(b), other than subparagraph (i), shall be entitled to attend a meeting of an Area Health Board of which he or she is not a member and to participate in the deliberations at such a meeting, but shall not be entitled to vote on any question arising at such a meeting.

(8) The Authority may make payments to a member of an Area Health Board or to a member of the Authority referred to in subsection (7) in respect of travelling and subsistence expenses incurred in attending a meeting of an Area Health Board or otherwise in the pursuance of the business of an Area Health Board in accordance with a scale determined by the Minister, with the consent of the Minister for Finance.

(9) The Authority may, with the consent of the Minister, pay an allowance to the chairman and the vice-chairman of an Area Health Board in respect of expenses (other than expenses referred to in subsection (8)) incurred by him or her in relation to the business of the Area Health Board.

(10) Rules 7, 10, 11 (as amended by section 22 ), 15 and 17 to 32 of the Second Schedule to the Principal Act, shall apply in relation to an Area Health Board and, accordingly, references therein to the board shall be construed as including references to an Area Health Board.

(11) An Area Health Board shall hold at least 9 meetings in each year and such other meetings as may be necessary for the performance of its functions.

17. —(1) Subject to subsection (2), the Authority shall, pursuant to a recommendation from the Local Appointments Commissioners, appoint 3 persons to be chief executive officers of the Area Health Boards, and shall assign them to the 3 Area Health Boards as it sees fit and each of these persons shall be known and in this Act referred to as an area chief executive.

(2) The Minister may, before the establishment day, pursuant to a recommendation from the Local Appointments Commissioners, appoint 3 persons to be area chief executives of the Area Health Boards, and shall assign them to the 3 Area Health Boards as he or she sees fit, and those persons shall be deemed to have been so appointed on the establishment day.

(3) A person appointed under subsection (1) or (2) shall hold office for a period not exceeding 7 years under a contract of service in writing with the Authority upon such terms and conditions (including terms and conditions relating to remuneration and expenses) as may be determined by the Minister, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, and specified in the contract.

(4) An area chief executive shall act as the chief executive officer of the Area Health Board.

(5) Where the Authority delegates a function to an Area Health Board in accordance with section 9 , the corresponding executive functions of the Regional Chief Executive shall be deemed to have been delegated to the area chief executive of that Area Health Board.

(6) The Regional Chief Executive shall delegate in writing to each area chief executive such of his or her functions in relation to the provision of services within the functional area of the relevant Area Health Board which, immediately before the establishment day, were performed by the chief executive officer of the Eastern Health Board.

(7) Notwithstanding subsection (6), the Regional Chief Executive may, from time to time, and where he or she considers such action would secure the most beneficial, effective and efficient use of resources, provide in writing for such of his or her functions as he or she may determine to be exerciseable in relation to the whole or part of the Authority's functional area by a specified area chief executive and where the Regional Chief Executive does so, any delegation made under subsection (6) in relation to those functions shall be revoked.

(8) An area chief executive shall exercise the functions delegated to him or her under this section in accordance with such general directions as may from time to time be given by the Regional Chief Executive.

(9) An area chief executive may delegate, in accordance with subsections (2) to (5) of section 16 of the Principal Act, his or her functions to another member of the staff of the Authority who has been assigned to the Area Health Board concerned and references therein to the chief executive officer of a health board shall be construed for the purposes of this subsection as references to an area chief executive.

(10) An area chief executive may be removed from office by the Authority, with the consent of the Minister, in accordance with the terms and conditions of his or her contract of service.

(11) The appointment under subsection (1) and the removal under subsection (10) of an area chief executive shall be reserved functions of the Authority.

18. —(1) An Area Health Board shall keep all proper and usual accounts of all moneys received or expended by it including an income and expenditure account and balance sheet and, in particular, shall keep all such special accounts as the Authority or the Minister may, from time to time, direct.

(2) An Area Health Board shall prepare annual financial statements in accordance with the accounting standards specified by the Minister for the purposes of section 11(2) of the No. 3 Act of 1996 and shall submit such financial statements to the Comptroller and Auditor General for audit on or before the 1st day of April in the year following the year to which they relate.

(3) Upon completion of the audit referred to in subsection (2), the Comptroller and Auditor General shall draw up a report in writing in relation to the financial statements and shall submit a copy of the financial statements together with his or her report thereon to the Authority, which shall submit them to the Minister.

(4) The annual financial statements of an Area Health Board shall form part of the consolidated annual accounts of the Authority.

(5) The consolidated annual financial statements of the Authority shall be prepared in accordance with accounting standards specified by the Minister and shall be adopted by the Authority and submitted to the Comptroller and Auditor General for audit on or before the 15th day of April in the year following the financial year to which they relate.

(6) Subject to subsection (5), the consolidated annual financial statements of the Authority shall be audited in accordance with section 6 of the Act of 1993.

(7) The annual financial statements of the three Area Health Boards, together with the reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General thereon, shall be appended by the Minister to the annual financial statements of the Authority (as submitted to the Minister by the Comptroller and Auditor General in accordance with section 6 of the Act of 1993) and the consolidated annual financial statements of the Authority (as submitted to the Minister by the Comptroller and Auditor General in accordance with subsection (6) and section 6 of the Act of 1993) and laid before each House of the Oireachtas.

(8) An area chief executive shall assist the Regional Chief Executive in carrying out his or her duties under section 13 in such manner and at such times as the Regional Chief Executive may from time to time direct.