Court Officers Act, 1926

Existing officers and servants.

63.—(1) All registrars, clerks, officers, messengers, criers, and servants (in this section referred to as existing officers and servants) who at the passing of the Courts of Justice Act, 1924 (No. 10 of 1924), were either attached to a court then existing or to the person of a judge then holding office or were employed in a court office then existing and are at the passing of this Act attached or performing duties in relation to any court or judge or are employed in any court office shall immediately upon the commencement of the Part of this Act relating to such court, judge, or office cease to hold office and their respective offices shall be and are hereby abolished as from such commencement.

(2) Sub-section (1) of this section shall not apply to any person who immediately before the commencement of Part III . of this Act holds the office of district court clerk under the District Justices (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1923 (No. 6 of 1923) or, in the Dublin Metropolitan Area and in the County Borough of Cork, the office of chief or other clerk of the District Court in that area and borough respectively, and no such person shall be an existing officer or servant for the purposes of this section.

(3) All existing officers and servants who are temporary officers or servants and whose functions are not expressly transferred by this Act to any officer created by this Act shall, notwithstanding the abolition of their respective offices or situations, continue until the Minister otherwise directs to perform the like duties as they respectively performed immediately before such abolition and while so performing such duties shall be entitled to receive remuneration on the same scale as that on which they were remunerated immediately before such abolition.

(4) Subject to the provisions of this Act prescribing qualifications for particular officers, every existing officer or servant who is not a temporary officer or servant shall (subject to the exceptions hereinafter mentioned) be offered employment in a situation under this Act carrying not less salary than the situation held by him as such existing officer or servant at the passing of this Act, except that this sub-section shall not apply to any existing officer or servant who is at the passing of this Act over the age of sixty-five years, or has then served for more than forty years in court offices or in posts or situations attached to a court or a judge, or is in the opinion of the Minister physically unfit for employment in a situation under this Act, and that the provision of this sub-section as to salary shall not apply in the case of a clerk of the crown and peace who is offered employment as a county registrar.

(5) The following provisions shall apply to every existing officer who accepts employment in a situation under this Act, that is to say:—

(a) the acceptance of such employment shall not prejudice or affect (save as is hereinafter mentioned) his rights arising under Article 10 of the Treaty of 1921 on the abolition of his office;

(b) he shall not be entitled to receive any annual allowance under the said Article 10 in respect of any period for which he receives salary in a situation under this Act nor to receive any gratuity or lump sum payment under the said Article 10 while receiving such salary;

(c) on his ceasing to hold a situation under this Act he shall be entitled to receive at his option either such compensation as he may be entitled to under the said Article 10 or such allowance or other compensation as he may be entitled to under the Superannuation Acts, 1834 to 1923 or other Acts authorising the grant to him of a pension or other allowance as modified for and applied to him by this sub-section;

(d) in lieu of the foregoing paragraphs, the offer of employment under this Act may be made conditional on his waiving all right to compensation under the said Article 10 in respect of abolition of or discharge from office, but every such waiver shall be subject to the condition that in the event of his subsequently retiring from such employment because of his having reached an age limit or being discharged from such employment for any reason other than misconduct, incapacity, or ill-health, his allowance or other compensation under the Superannuation Acts, 1834 to 1923 or other Acts authorising the grant to him of a pension or other allowance as modified for and applied to him by this sub-section shall not be less than the compensation he would have been entitled to under the said Article 10;

(e) he shall hold the situation under this Act by the tenure and on the conditions prescribed therefor by or under this Act;

(f) the Acts which, immediately before he ceased by virtue of this section to hold office, authorised the grant to him of a pension or other allowance (from whatever fund or moneys such pension or allowance could have been granted) shall on his ceasing to hold a situation under this Act apply to him in the same manner and to the same extent as they applied to him immediately before he so ceased to hold office but with and subject to the following modifications, that is to say:—

(i) in computing the period of his service for the purpose of those Acts he shall be entitled to reckon as continuous service for those purposes whatever period (if any) of service he was or is deemed by virtue of this sub-section to have been entitled immediately before he so ceased to hold office to reckon as service for those purposes and his period of service in a situation under this Act, and

(ii) the Minister for Finance shall be substituted for the person authorised by those Acts to grant to him a pension or allowance, and

(iii) any pension or allowance granted to him shall be paid out of the moneys provided by the Oireachtas;

(g) if he was first appointed to his office in a temporary capacity under the Court Officers (Temporary Appointments) Act, 1924 (No. 2 of 1924) and was subsequently appointed to the same office in a pensionable capacity, he shall be entitled and shall be deemed to have been entitled immediately before he ceased by virtue of this section to hold office to reckon as continuous service in a pensionable capacity for the purposes of the Superannuation Acts, 1834 to 1923, his total period of service in such office from the date of his first appointment thereto in a temporary capacity;

(h) he may on the recommendation of the Minister be retained, with his own consent and the sanction of the Minister for Finance, in a situation under this Act until he attains the age of seventy years.

(6) An existing officer who is offered employment in a situation under this Act may, with the consent of the Minister, accept such employment provisionally and postpone his final acceptance or rejection of such employment for any period not extending beyond eighteen months from the commencement of the Part of this Act relating to such situation, and if in any such case he finally accepts such employment within such period such acceptance shall relate back to and take effect as from the date of the provisional acceptance.