State Financial Transactions (Special Provisions) Act, 1984

Temporary arrangements for carrying out certain State financial transactions.

2.—(1) (a) Whenever the Minister is satisfied that, owing to special circumstances of a temporary nature, it is not possible to do any one or more of the following, that is to say, to operate the Exchequer Account in accordance with the provisions of the Exchequer and Audit Departments Act, 1866 , to operate a State account or to carry out any other financial transaction on behalf of the State, he may, if he believes that it is in the national interest to do so, by order or orders appoint a day or days on which subsections (2) and (3) of this section, or either of them or any of their provisions, shall come, or be deemed to have come, into operation and the subsection or subsections, or the provisions of those subsections, specified in such an order shall come or, as appropriate, be deemed to have come, into operation on the day specified in that behalf in the order in relation thereto.

(b) Whenever, at a time when the provisions, or any of the provisions, of subsections (2) and (3) of this section are in force, the Minister ceases to be satisfied as aforesaid, he shall, as soon as may be thereafter, make an order appointing a day (being a day not later than seven days after the day on which the order is made) on and from which the provisions of those subsections that are then in force shall cease to be in force and the said provisions shall cease to be in force as on and from the day so appointed.

(c) An order, or part of an order, under paragraph (a) of this subsection may, if so expressed, have retrospective effect, but no such order or part shall appoint a day earlier than the 26th day of November, 1984, as the day on which a provision of this section shall be deemed to have come into operation.

(2) (a) Notwithstanding anything in the Exchequer and Audit Departments Act, 1866 , and section 49 of the Central Bank Act, 1971 , the procedures provided under those, or any other, statutes for bringing to account revenue of the State and other public moneys and making issues of moneys on behalf of the State that, but for this subsection, would involve operations on the Exchequer Account or a State account shall be carried out under and in accordance with such arrangements (including the transfer of the Exchequer Account or any State account to a commercial bank or any other institution) as may be made in that behalf by the Minister after consultation with the Comptroller and Auditor General.

(b) Moneys that, but for this subsection, would be payable into or out of a State account that is required by or under the provisions of any statute to be kept at the Central Bank shall be paid under and in accordance with such arrangements as may be made in that behalf by the Minister.

(c) During any time that, and for so long only as, the Exchequer Account stands transferred under subsection (2) of this section to a commercial bank or any other institution, the references in sections 10 , 11 , 13 and 15 of the Exchequer and Audit Departments Act, 1866 , as amended by the Central Bank Act, 1971 , to the Central Bank shall be construed as references to the commercial bank or other institution to which the Exchequer Account then stands transferred.

(3) (a) Whenever the Minister is satisfied that the redemption of, or the payment of interest or a dividend on, a particular security listed on the Stock Exchange-Irish (being a land bond issued under the Land Purchase Acts or an order made thereunder or any security denominated in Irish pounds and issued under section 54 of the Finance Act, 1970 ) cannot be effected, he may by order postpone such redemption or payment, as the case may be.

(b) The Minister may by order amend or revoke an order under this subsection, including an order under this subparagraph.

(c) An order, or part of an order, under paragraph (a) or (b) of this subsection may, if so expressed, have retrospective effect but no such order or part shall appoint a day earlier than the 30th day of November, 1984, as the day on which the order or part, as the case may be, shall be deemed to have come into operation.