Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act, 1891

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Aid in case of exceptional agricultural calamity from purchasers’ insurance and from Reserve Fund.

8.[¹] —(1) Where an advance for the purchase of a holding is less than twenty times the annual value of the holding as in this Act defined, then during the first five years of the term of the purchase-annuity the annuity shall be eighty per cent. of such annual value (and the excess of any purchase-annuity over an annuity of four per cent. on the advance is in this Act referred to as “the purchaser’s insurance money”), but the annuity shall, on application, be reduced after those five years, to such four per cent., and after the first eighteen years of the term shall on application be further reduced to such annuity as, in accordance with the prescribed tables, will, after allowing for the purchaser’s insurance money, replace at the end of the term the advance with interest at the rate of three per cent. per annum: Provided that this subsection shall not apply when the amount of the advance does not exceed three-fourths of the purchase money of the holding.

(2) All such reductions shall be made by the Land Commission on the application in writing by letter or otherwise of the proprietor for the time being of the holding charged, and, if no such application is made, the annuity shall remain of the same amount, but in any case shall cease at such period, before the end of the term of the annuity, as may be provided by the prescribed tables, so as to replace the advance with interest at the rate of three per cent. per annum.

(3) If (after one fourth of the guaranteed land stock available for land purchase in a county has been applied for within three years after the passing of this Act) it appears to the Lord Lieutenant on the Report of the Land Commission, that it is expedient, in the interests of tenants desiring to purchase, that the purchase-annuities to which this section applies in the county should continue for more than five years to be eighty per cent. of the said annual value, and he so declares by publication in the maner directed by him, this section shall, from the date mentioned in such declaration, apply to all such annuities in that county as are chargeable on any holding the agreement for the purchase of which has been made after the date of the declaration, as if the number of years mentioned in the declaration were throughout substituted for five years, and the annuity shall cease at such earlier period as may be fixed by the prescribed tables.

(4) The Lord Lieutenant, on the report of the Land Commission, may, if he thinks it expedient for the reason aforesaid, by a subsequent declaration, revoke or vary any such declaration and may also make a new declaration under the provisions of this subsection; but no such subsequent or new declaration shall affect any annuity chargeable on a holding the agreement for the purchase of which was made before the date of the declaration.

(5) Provided that any such declaration, except when it merely revokes a previous declaration, shall not come into operation till it has lain before both Houses of Parliament for not less than thirty days, nor if either House passes a resolution objecting to it.

(6) Where the whole or a part of any purchaser’s insurance money has been paid and subsequently the annuity in respect of which it has been paid is in arrear, the Land Commission, if satisfied that such arrear is due to exceptional circumstances and not to any fault of the person liable to pay the annuity, may, if they think it expedient, set off against the whole or part of the arrear the purchaser’s insurance money, or any part thereof; but the annuity (notwithstanding any reduction under the foregoing provisions of this section) shall be increased by such amount, after such period, not exceeding two years from the date of the set off or the termination of the first five years, or any extended term fixed by a declaration of the Lord Lieutenant under this section, whichever shall latest happen, and for such time, as the Land Commission direct, in order to replace the sum so set off, but so that the annuity shall not exceed the annuity payable during the first five years of the term.

(7) If in any financial year it appears to the Lord Lieutenant, on the report of the Land Commission and Local Government Board, that, in consequence of exceptional agricultural distress or calamity in any county, it is advisable in the public interest that any deficiency arising, or likely to arise, from the non-payment of purchase-annuities in that county should be advanced in whole or in part out of the Reserve Fund instead of being paid as before provided by this Act, he may, with the consent of the Treasury, order such advance; but the order shall not come into operation till it has lain before both Houses of Parliament for not less than thirty days, nor if both Houses pass within the said period a resolution objecting to it; and the advance shall be repaid to the Reserve Fund out of the Exchequer contribution, before that contribution is applied to any purpose other than the Guarantee Fund.

(8) Every such order for an advance in any year shall specify the electoral divisions in the county in which the said distress or calamity has occurred to such extent as to require the aid herein-after mentioned to be given to the persons liable for the payment of purchase-annuities, and on application to the Land Commission by any such person in respect of a holding situated in an electoral division so specified, a portion of the advance may, in accordance with regulations made by the Land Commission, be deemed to be lent to him in discharge of the whole or part of any instalment of the purchase-annuity specified by the Land Commission, and the aanuity shall be increased by such amount, and for such time not exceeding five years commencing from such date, as the Land Commission direct, in order to repay to the Reserve Fund or the Exchequer Contribution, as the case may be, the amount so deemed to be lent.

(9) The regulations shall, so far as possible, secure that—

(a) no such loans shall be made to the extent to which the instalment can be paid out of the purchaser’s insurance money; and that

(b) if the amount of the advance is insufficient to meet all the loans applied for, such loans shall abate proportionately.

[¹ S. 8 rep. by 59 & 60 Vict. c. 47. s. 52, except as to any purchasers insurance money paid before commencement of that Act.]