Moneylenders Act, 1933

Certificate required for grant of moneylender's licence.

6.—(1) Subject to the provisions of this section a moneylender's licence shall not be granted except to a person who holds a certificate granted in accordance with the provisions of this section authorising the grant of the licence to that person, and a separate certificate shall be required in respect of every separate licence. Any moneylender's licence granted in contravention of this section shall be void.

(2) Certificates under this section (in this Act referred to as “certificates”) shall be granted by the Justice of the District Court having jurisdiction in the District Court area in which the moneylender's business is to be carried on.

(3) A certificate under this section shall not be granted to any applicant unless such applicant produces satisfactory evidence that such applicant, if an individual, is at the date of the application a national of Saorstát Eireann or, if a company, is at the said date an Irish-owned body corporate.

(4) Every certificate granted to a moneylender shall show his true name and the name under which, and the address at which, he is authorised by the certificate to carry on business as such, and a certificate shall not authorise a moneylender to carry on business at more than one address, or under more than one name, or under any name which includes the word “bank” or otherwise implies that he carries on banking business, and no certificate shall authorise a moneylender to carry on business under any name except—

(a) his true name; or

(b) the name of a firm in which he is a partner, not being a firm required by the Registration of Business Names Act, 1916, to be registered; or

(c) a business name, whether of an individual or of a firm in which he is a partner, under which he or the firm has, at the passing of this Act, been registered for not less than three years both as a moneylender under the Moneylenders Act, 1900, and under the Registration of Business Names Act, 1916.

(5) A certificate shall come into force on the date specified therein, and shall expire on the next following thirty-first day of July.

(6) The Minister for Justice shall make rules with respect to the procedure to be followed in making applications for certificates (including the notices to be given of intention to make such an application), and certificates shall be in such form as may be prescribed by the rules so made.

(7) Every rule made by the Minister for Justice under this section shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and if a resolution is passed by either House of the Oireachtas within the next subsequent twenty-one days on which such House has sat after the rule is laid before it annulling such rule, such rule shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under such rule.

(8) A certificate shall not be refused except on some one or more of the following grounds:—

(a) that the grant of the certificate to the applicant is prohibited by sub-section (3) of this section;

(b) that satisfactory evidence has not been produced of the good character of the applicant, and in the case of a company of the persons responsible for the management thereof;

(c) that satisfactory evidence has been produced that the applicant, or any person responsible or proposed to be responsible for the management of his business as a moneylender, is not a fit and proper person to hold a certificate;

(d) that the applicant or any person responsible or proposed to be responsible for the management of his business as a moneylender is by order of a court disqualified for holding a certificate;

(e) that the applicant has not complied with the provisions of any rules made under this section with respect to applications for certificates;

(f) that the applicant has failed to satisfy the court that he is a person of financial stability;

(g) that the applicant is the holder of a bookmaker's licence;

(h) that the applicant is the holder of a licence for the sale of intoxicating liquor.

(9) A superintendent of the Gárda Síochána of, or any resident in, the District Court area in which an application for a certificate is made shall have the right to appear in court and oppose the granting of a certificate on any one or more of the grounds mentioned in the last preceding sub-section, and to be heard and to call witnesses in support of his objection.

(10) Any person aggrieved by the refusal of a Justice of the District Court to grant a certificate may appeal to the Judge of the Circuit Court within whose Circuit the moneylender's business is to be carried on, and the decision of such Judge shall be final and not appealable.

(11) Whenever an application for a certificate is refused and an appeal from such refusal is lodged, then if the applicant was at the time of making the application the holder of a moneylender's licence, the Revenue Commissioners may, without payment of any duty but subject to such conditions as they may think fit to impose, issue to such applicant a temporary licence for such period not extending beyond the expiration of seven days after the decision of such appeal as they may think fit, and every such temporary licence shall while it remains in force be a moneylender's licence within the meaning of this Act.