S.I. No. 78/1954:

LAND (FINANCE) RULES, 1954.

LAND (FINANCE) RULES, 1954.

The Minister for Finance, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by the Land Purchase Acts and of every and any other power him in this behalf enabling, hereby makes the following rules and regulations (hereinafter referred to as Rules) :

1. These Rules may be cited as the Land (Finance) Rules, 1954.

2. The Interpretation Act, 1937 (No. 38 of 1937), applies to these Rules.

3. In these Rules--

" consolidated instalment " means a payment due to the Land Commission on foot of a consolidated annuity or two or more sums associated for collection purposes prior to or pending consolidation ;

" the relevant Funds " means the Local Loans Fund, the Purchase Annuities Fund and the Land Bond Fund.

4. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any existing rule or regulation made in pursuance of the powers contained in the Land Purchase Acts, the following provisions shall have effect :

(a) each consolidated instalment may be passed only through the particular account into which the consolidated instalment is paid and, if so passed, shall be paid thereout into whichever particular Fund of the relevant Funds shall, for the time being, be appropriate to receive moneys from that account and may be dealt with and treated in all respects in the same manner as such moneys ;

(b) the part or parts of any consolidated instalment appropriate to a Fund or Funds other than the particular Fund into which the consolidated instalment has been paid shall be made good to the appropriate Fund or Funds by way of such adjustments as may be requisite in the ascertainment and payment of the respective amounts and sums payable to each of the relevant Funds out of the Guarantee Fund in the manner provided by Rule 5 of these Rules.

5. At or on the thirty-first day of January and the thirty-first day of July in every year the Land Commission shall, for the immediate preceding half-year, ascertain--

(a) the amount (exclusive of arrears) accrued due and appropriate (notwithstanding anything contained in Rule 4 of these Rules) to each of the relevant Funds, and

(b) the amount (exclusive of arrears) collected and paid or payable into each of the relevant Funds,

and shall forthwith certify those amounts to the Minister for Finance who shall cause an advance to be made to each of the relevant Funds out of the Guarantee Fund of such respective sums as will make up the respective differences (if any) between the ascertained amounts provided that, where, in relation to the Local Loans Fund or the Purchase Annuities Fund, the said amount collected exceeds the said amount accrued due and appropriate thereto, the amount of such excess shall first be transferred into the Land Bond Fund and the sum to be advanced to the Land Bond Fund shall be reduced accordingly.

6. Every instalment (whether or not a consolidated instalment), payable on a gale day in relation to an advance made or to be made by the Land Commission, which has not been received by the thirty-first day of January or thirty-first day of July immediately following the gale day on which it becomes due shall be deemed to be arrears and as such shall, when recovered and paid into a particular account, be paid, as soon as practicable, to whichever particular Fund of the relevant Funds shall, for the time being, be appropriate to receive moneys from that account and shall thereafter be transferred from that Fund to the Guarantee Fund at such times as may be directed by the Minister for Finance, provided that, if at any time the arrears recovered and paid into the Local Loans Fund or the Purchase Annuities Fund exceed the amount repayable therefrom to the Guarantee Fund, the amount of such excess shall first be transferred to the Land Bond Fund to be applied in reduction of the sum previously advanced from the Guarantee Fund to the Land Bond Fund.

7.--(1) The Guarantee Fund shall be under the direction of the Minister for Finance, who shall keep an account of the cash portion of the Fund, showing separately the payments made thereto in respect of :

(a) the Agricultural Grant, and

(b) the Exchequer Contribution.

(2) In the case of payments from the Guarantee Fund to the Local Taxation Account, any payments from the Guarantee Fund to any of the relevant Funds in respect of arrears shall, so far as not repaid, be deducted, firstly, from the Agricultural Grant and, secondly, from the Exchequer Contribution.

(3) Any payments by way of advances from the Guarantee Fund to any particular Fund of the relevant Funds in respect of arrears shall be a debt from that particular Fund to the Guarantee Fund and be repayable out of payments on account of arrears which are subsequently recovered by the Land Commission and by them paid into that particular Fund in accordance with Rule 6 of these Rules.

(4) Any sum received from any particular Fund of the relevant Funds for the repayment of advances to that particular Fund from the Guarantee Fund in respect of arrears shall be credited in account, so as to make good the sums used for such advances out of the funds and moneys hereafter mentioned, and shall be so credited in the following order, namely, firstly, to the Exchequer Contribution and, secondly, to the Agricultural Grant.

(5) On the seventeenth day of February in every year, and at such other times (if any) as the Minister for Finance may direct, there shall be paid from the Guarantee Fund to the Local Taxation Account any cash then standing to the credit of the Guarantee Fund, except what is required for meeting any charge on the Guarantee Fund then accrued ; and the Minister for Finance in making such payments shall certify the amounts paid in respect of the Agricultural Grant and the Exchequer Contribution respectively.

(6) On or before the sixteenth day of February in each year, the Land Commission shall certify to the Minister for Finance for the year ended on the thirty-first day of January immediately preceding--

(a) the total amount chargeable to each county of the sum drawn from the Guarantee Fund in respect of arrears ;

(b) the total amount which each county shall have paid to the Guarantee Fund in respect of arrears which have been recovered.

The amount assigned to each county under (a) and (b) shall be the actual amount received from or paid to the Guarantee Fund in the year in respect of that county.

8. The interest and sinking fund payable by the Land Commission to the Land Bond Fund on all sums advanced or paid by the issue of land bonds and not certified by the Minister for Finance to have been repaid shall be made up of--

(a) instalments, collectible by the Land Commission on gale days in relation to advances made or to be made by the issue of land bonds, which shall be paid over or made good to the Land Bond Fund as soon as practicable, and

(b) the balance which shall be paid to the Land Bond Fund in half-yearly instalments on, or as soon as practicable after, the twenty-first day of June and the twenty-second day of December in each year.

9. The Land Commission shall supply the Minister for Finance with such information as will enable him to perform his duties under these Rules, and shall be responsible for the accuracy of the information so supplied.

10. If the day on which anything is directed by these Rules to be done falls on a Sunday or a Bank Holiday, that thing shall be done on the next following day which is neither a Sunday nor a Bank Holiday.

11.--(1) The following are hereby revoked :

(a) the Purchase Annuities Fund Rules, 1924,

(b) (i) paragraph (3) of Rule 4 of the Land (Finance) Rules, 1925,

(ii) Rule 7 of those Rules,

(iii) the words " The Land Commission shall pay to the Purchase Annuities Fund such part or parts of the consolidated annuity as may be attributable to advances made in pursuance of purchase agreements under the Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act, 1891, or any later Land Purchase Act other than the Land Act, 1923 " in paragraph (1) of Rule 31 of those Rules.

(2) Paragraph (2) of Rule 9 of the Land (Finance) Rules, 1925, is hereby amended by the deletion of sub-paragraphs (i) and (ii) and the words " The amount assigned to each county under (i) and (ii) shall be the actual amount received from or paid to the Guarantee Fund in the year in respect of that county."

GIVEN under the Official Seal of the Minister for Finance, this first day of April, 1954.

G. P. S. HOGAN,

An Assistant Secretary, Department of Finance.