Land Act, 1923

Preservation of embankments, etc.

44.—(1) Where it appears to the Judicial Commissioner that prior to the appointed day a landlord, or in the case of untenanted land an owner, has been liable for the cleansing or maintenance in whole or in part of any watercourse drain embankment or other work, either alone or in conjunction with other persons and whether under the terms of a contract of tenancy or otherwise, he may direct that out of the Land Bonds representing the purchase money there shall be transferred and applied in manner hereinafter provided Land Bonds sufficient to yield such income as in his opinion will be required for the future cleansing and maintenance of such watercourse drain embankment or other work, in accordance with the liability as ascertained by him of the former landlord or owner.

(2) Land Bonds so ordered to be transferred and applied shall be transferred to the Public Trustee, and the income shall be applied in or towards the cleansing or maintenance of the watercourse, drain, embankment, or other work in accordance with a scheme to be framed by the Land Commission which may if thought fit authorise the sale of the said Land Bonds or the investments for the time being representing the same or any part thereof and the application of the principal moneys arising from such sale in or towards the reconstruction of such work.

(3) The Land Commission shall have power to determine all questions in connection with watercourses, drains and embankments, and the cleansing and maintenance thereof, and to define or prescribe the rights, obligations, and liabilities in relation thereto of all parties.

(4) The Land Commission shall have power to enter on any lands for the purposes of the cleansing, repair, maintenance or restoration of watercourses, drains, embankments, or other works, and to take such soil and materials therefrom, and to do such things thereon as may be necessary for the said purposes.

(5) The Land Commission shall have power in their discretion to expend in or towards the reconstruction of any watercourse, drain, embankment or other work such sum as at their request the Minister for Finance shall approve of and advance out of moneys to be provided by the Oireachtas, and so much of such sum as the Land Commission certify in that behalf shall be repayable by means of an annuity or annuities charged upon any land, which the Land Commission certify to have been benefited by such expenditure, as if the said sum had been advanced for the purchase of the land in pursuance of a subsequent purchase agreement, the said annuity to be consolidated, so far as circumstances permit, with any existing Land Purchase annuity to which the land is subject.