S.I. No. 10/1924 - Purchase Annuities Fund Rules, 1924

STATUTORY RULES AND ORDERS, 1924. No. 10.

THE PURCHASE ANNUITIES FUND RULES, 1924.

PURCHASE ANNUITIES FUND RULES, 1924, DATED 30TH JANUARY, 1924, MADE BY THE MINISTER FOR FINANCE UNDER THE LAND ACT, 1923 .

In pursuance of the powers conferred by Sections 12 (3) and 17 of the Land Act, 1923 , and of every other power enabling me in this behalf, I, Earnán de Blaghd, Minister for Finance, do hereby, without prejudice to any further exercise of the said powers, make the following Rules and Regulations :—

1 Purchase Annuities

1. (1) The Land Commission shall, at such times as the Minister for Finance may direct, pay over to the Purchase Annuities Fund all money received by them on account of purchasers' half-yearly payments.

(2) On the thirty-first day of January and the thirty-first day of July in every year, the Land Commission shall ascertain the amount then in arrear of the said half-yearly payments which were due on the last preceding gale days, and shall forthwith certify that amount to the Minister for Finance, who shall cause an advance of such amount to be made to the Purchase Annuities Fund out of the Guarantee Fund.

(3) Any advance from the Guarantee Fund already made under Section 3 (1) of these Rules, and not repaid, shall be treated as an instalment on account of the advance under the preceding paragraph of this Rule.

(4) All purchasers' half-yearly payments which have not been received by the thirty-first day of January and thirty-first day of July immediately following the gale days on which they become due , shall be deemed to be arrears, and as such shall, when recovered, be paid, as soon as practicable, to the Purchase Annuities Fund, and shall thereafter be transferred from that Fund to the Guarantee Fund at such times as may be directed by the Minister for Finance.

Guarantee Fund

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2. (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 Estate Duty Grant ;

(b) The Agricultural Grant ; and

(c) 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 the Purchase Annuities Fund shall, so far as not repaid, be deducted, first, from the Estate Duty Grant ; secondly, from the Agricultural Grant ; and thirdly from the Exchequer Contribution.

(3). Any payments by way of advances from the Guarantee Fund to the Purchase Annuities Fund in respect of arrears shall be a debt from that 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 the Purchase Annuities Fund.

(4). Any sum received from the Purchase Annuities Fund for the repayment of advances to that Fund from the Guarantee Fund 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, first to the Exchequer Contribution ; secondly, to the Agricultural Grant ; and thirdly to the Estate Duty Grant.

Cash Arrangements.

3 Payments to the Appropriate Authority Sec. 12 (2) Land Act, 1923.

3. (1) If at any time when the Minister for Finance is about to make a payment to the appropriate authority for the credit of the Land Purchase Account or the Irish Land Purchase Fund, as the case may be, the cash standing to the credit of the Purchase Annuities Fund is insufficient to make the said payment, the Minister for Finance shall cause an advance to be made to the Purchase Annuities Fund out of the cash standing to the credit of the Guarantee Fund, and, if that is insufficient, out of the Central Fund.

(2). Any advance so made out of the Central Fund shall, as soon as possible, be repaid from the Guarantee Fund.

(3). Every sum so repaid and every sum so advanced out of the Guarantee Fund shall be repaid to the Guarantee Fund out of any money subsequently paid to the credit of the Purchase Annuities Fund which is not required for the purpose of meeting the other liabilities of that Fund.

4 Payment to Local Taxation Account.

4. (1) On the 17th 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 Estate Duty Grant, the Agricultural Grant, and the Exchequer Contribution respectively.

(2). 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 :

(i) The amount chargeable to each county of the sum drawn from the Guarantee Fund in respect of purchasers' half-yearly payments in arrear ;

(ii) The amount which each county shall have paid to the Guarantee Fund in respect of purchasers' half-yearly payments in arrear which have been recovered ;

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.

Returns.

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

Calculation of Time.

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6. In counting days for the purposes of these Rules, Sundays and Bank Holidays shall be excluded, and, if the day on which anything is directed to be done falls on a Sunday or a Bank Holiday, the same shall be done on the next following day.

Definitions.

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7. (1) In these Rules, unless the context otherwise requires : The expression, " purchasers' half-yearly payments, " means the instalments of annuities or interest in repayment of advances made or to be made in Saorstát Eireann 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 (Number 42 of 1923), payable on a gale day.

(2). The Interpretation Act, 1889, applies to the interpretation of these Rules as it applies to the interpretation of an Act of the Oireachtas.

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8. (1) These Rules may be cited as the Purchase Annuities Fund Rules, 1924.

(2) The Rules, dated February 26th, 1892, made by the Treasury under the Purchase of Land (Ireland) Act, 1891, as amended by Rules dated August the 2nd, 1895, and March the 14th, 1899, and the Irish Land (Finance) Rules, 1912, in so far as they conflict with the provisions of these Rules, are hereby revoked.