Irish National Petroleum Corporation Limited Act, 2001
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Provision of guarantee. |
8.—(1) Subject to subsection (2), the Minister may, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, guarantee, in such form and manner, for such time and on such terms and conditions as he or she thinks fit, obligations of the Corporation pursuant to the sale and purchase agreement entered into with the purchaser in connection with the disposal referred to in section 6 and may, for that purpose, enter into any relevant agreement or arrangement. | |
(2) (a) Subject to paragraph (b), the amount or aggregate amount of any guarantee under subsection (1) shall not exceed US$75,000,000. | ||
(b) Paragraph (a) does not apply to any obligations of the Corporation pursuant to the sale and purchase agreement entered into between the Corporation and the purchaser in relation to the Bantry Offshore Jetty. | ||
(3) The Minister shall, as soon as may be after the expiration of every financial year, lay before each House of the Oireachtas a statement setting out with respect to any such guarantee referred to in subsection (1) that is in force upon such expiration— | ||
(a) in the case where any payment has been made by the Minister under the guarantee during that year, the amount of the payment, and | ||
(b) the amount covered by the guarantee which was outstanding at the end of the year. | ||
(4) Any amounts paid by the Minister under the provisions of the guarantee referred to in subsection (1) shall be repaid to the Central Fund out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas. | ||
(5) (a) Notwithstanding the provision of moneys under subsection (4) to repay an amount to the Central Fund, the Corporation shall remain liable to the Minister in respect of the amount to be repaid to the Central Fund and that amount, together with any specified interest thereon from— | ||
(i) the date payment was requested by the Minister from the Corporation, or | ||
(ii) such date as the Minister and the Corporation agree to, | ||
and, subject always to the provisions of the guarantee concerned, shall be repaid to the Minister by the Corporation at such times and in such instalments as the Minister appoints. | ||
(b) If the Corporation fails to repay an amount (including any specified interest) in accordance with paragraph (a), then— | ||
(i) it shall be recoverable by the Minister as a simple contract debt in any court of competent jurisdiction, and | ||
(ii) on a winding-up of the Corporation it shall, notwithstanding anything contained in any agreement or any enactment, rank equally with the debts of all other unsecured creditors of the Corporation. | ||
(c) Paragraph (b)(i) is without prejudice to any other method of recovery. | ||
(d) In this subsection “specified interest” means— | ||
(i) a rate of interest equivalent to the fixed rates of interest penalty payable pursuant to section 4(2) of the Prompt Payment of Accounts Act, 1997 , or | ||
(ii) if the Minister specifies a lower rate of interest, that rate. | ||
(6) Moneys repaid by the Corporation to the Minister, or recovered from the Corporation by the Minister, under this section shall be paid into or disposed of for the benefit of the Exchequer. | ||
(7) All moneys from time to time required by the Minister to meet sums that may become payable by him or her under this section shall be advanced out of the Central Fund or the growing produce thereof. |