48. Section 133 of the Principal Act is amended—

(a) by substituting the following for subsection (1):

“(1) The elected council of each local authority shall form a committee, to be known as the corporate policy group and in this section referred to as the ‘policy group’, consisting of—

(a) the Cathaoirleach of the local authority who shall chair the policy group,

(b) the chairpersons of the strategic policy committees of the local authority, and

(c) where for any period of time, a policy group does not contain a member from a municipal district to whom paragraph (a) or (b) relates, a municipal district member for each municipal district concerned—

(i) selected by the municipal district members for such district, or

(ii) failing such selection, the Cathaoirleach of the municipal district concerned or such other member as the Cathaoirleach may select.”,

(b) by inserting the following paragraph after paragraph (b) of subsection (2):

“(ba) Without prejudice to paragraph (a) and with respect to the policies of and functions performed by the local authority, the policy group may promote co-ordination, consistency, effectiveness and avoidance of duplication in the performance of functions of the local authority by municipal district members.”,

and

(c) by inserting the following after subsection (9):

“(10)(a) The Minister may issue policy guidelines to local authorities for the purposes of any provision of this section and such guidelines may include—

(i) procedures to be followed in respect of the manner and nature of the involvement of municipal district members with the policy group;

(ii) the format, content and layout of any particular class or classes of policy papers and other documents (including the preparation of preliminary documents) prepared by or presented to the policy group;

(iii) procedures to ensure that sufficient time for input by the policy group into policy papers is provided prior to completion and subsequent presentation to the local authority concerned.

(b) Guidelines issued under this section may relate generally to all local authorities or to a particular class or classes of local authorities and shall, in so far as the guidelines relate to them, be complied with by every local authority, chief executive, policy group and the municipal district members.”.