PART V.

The Supplementary Unemployment Fund.

45. —(1) For the purpose of this Act there shall be established, under the control and management of the Minister, a fund to be called and known as the Supplementary Unemployment Fund into which shall be paid all weekly contributions payable by employers and insured persons and any other moneys which under this Act are to be paid into the said Fund and out of which shall be paid all payments which under this Act are to be made out of the said Fund.

(2) The accounts of the Supplementary Unemployment Fund shall be kept in such form as the Minister for Finance may direct or approve.

(3) The accounts of the Supplementary Unemployment Fund for every year of account shall be submitted for audit to the Comptroller and Auditor-General and when examined and certified shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas.

(4) Any moneys forming part of the Supplementary Unemployment Fund may from time to time be paid over to the Minister for Finance and by him invested and kept invested at his discretion on behalf of the said Fund in all or any of the following ways, that is to say, in the purchase of any stock, fund or security in which trustees are authorised by the law for the time being in force to invest trust funds or in the purchase of any stock, shares or security the principal and interest of which are guaranteed under statutory authority by the Government and any interest received from such investment shall be paid into the said Fund.

(5) Moneys available for investment under the immediately preceding sub-section of this section shall be Government money within the meaning of the Approved Investments Act, 1933 (No. 34 of 1933), and that Act shall apply in regard thereto accordingly.

46. —(1) Whenever and so often as it appears to the Minister that the Supplementary Unemployment Fund is or is likely to be either insufficient or more than sufficient to discharge the liabilities imposed or about to be imposed upon the said Fund under this Act or that the rates of weekly contributions are or are likely to be excessive or deficient the Minister may, with the concurrence of the Minister for Finance, by regulations do either or both of the following things, that is to say:—

(a) amend the Second Schedule to this Act by substituting for the respective rates of weekly contributions set out in the second and third columns of that Schedule such other rates of weekly contributions as he thinks fit but not so as to vary the rates of weekly contributions unequally as between employers and insured persons,

(b) amend the Third Schedule to this Act by substituting for the hourly rates of supplementary benefit set out in the second column of that Schedule such other hourly rates of supplementary benefit as he thinks fit.

(2) References in sub-section (1) of this section to the Second Schedule to this Act and to the Third Schedule to this Act shall be construed as references to the said Schedules respectively as amended by any regulations previously made under the said sub-section (1).

47. —(1) The Minister for Finance may out of the Central Fund or the growing produce thereof advance any sums required for the purpose of discharging the liabilities of the Supplementary Unemployment Fund, and for the purpose of providing the sums to be so advanced the Minister for Finance may borrow money in such manner as he may think proper and all moneys so borrowed shall be paid into the Exchequer.

(2) Any sums advanced under the foregoing sub-section together with interest (if any) thereon at such rate as may be fixed by the Minister for Finance shall be charged on and be repayable out of the Supplementary Unemployment Fund and when so repaid shall be paid into the Exchequer.

(3) The principal of and interest on any securities issued by the Minister for Finance for the purpose of borrowing under this section and the expenses incurred in connection with the issue of such securities shall be charged on and payable out of the Central Fund or the growing produce thereof.