26. — Section 48 of the Vocational Education Act, 1930, is amended—

(a) in subsection (5), by the substitution of “Subject to subsection (7) of this section, a vocational education committee” for “A vocational education committee”, and

(b) by the insertion of the following subsection after subsection (6):

“(7) (a) A vocational education committee may, in relation to moneys from time to time standing to the credit of such committee in the vocational education fund maintained by it, do either or both of the following—

(i) make a deposit within the meaning of Part 3 of the National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Act, 2000, on such terms and conditions (including terms and conditions relating to the payment of interest) as it may agree with the Minister for Finance or with the National Treasury Management Agency, if the function conferred on the Minister for Finance by section 20(1) of that Act stands delegated to that Agency by virtue of an order under section 23 of that Act,

(ii) deposit such moneys with any credit institution authorised and supervised by the competent authority of a Member State of the European Communities on such terms and conditions (including terms and conditions relating to the payment of interest) as it may agree with such an institution.

(b) In this subsection, ‘credit institution’ and ‘competent authority’ have the same meanings as they have in the European Communities (Licensing and Supervision of Credit Institutions) Regulations, 1992 (S.I. No. 395 of 1992).”.