CIVIC GUARD (ACQUISTION OF PREMISES) ACT, 1923

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS OF SAORSTÁT EIREANN AS FOLLOWS:—

1 Power to Commissioners to examine and acquire premises.

1.—(1) Whenever the Minister for Home Affairs shall require the Commissioners to provide accommodation in any specified city, town or urban or rural district for any specified number of members of the Civic Guard—

• (a) any person appointed for that purpose by the Commissioners may at any time between ten in the morning and five in the afternoon enter any premises in such city, town or district and make such examination thereof as shall appear to such person to be requisite to enable him to decide whether such premises are suitable for the accommodation of the number of members of the Civic Guard aforesaid, and

• (b) the Commissioners may acquire under this Act any premises in such city, town or district which appear to the Commissioners to be suitable for the accommodation of the number of members of the Civic Guard aforesaid.

• (2) Whenever the Minister for Home Affairs shall require the Commissioners to acquire any premises which at the date of the passing of this Act are being used for the accommodation of members of the Civic Guard or are in the possession of the Commissioners with a view to their being so used, the Commissioners may acquire such premises under this Act (for which purpose such premises shall be deemed to be unoccupied premises), and if so acquired such premises shall be deemed to have been in the possession of the Commissioners under this Act as from the date on which members of the Civic Guard or the Commissioners (as the case may be) first entered into possession or occupation thereof.

2 Notices to be served by Commissioners.

2.—(1) Whenever the Commissioners intend to acquire any occupied premises under this Act they shall serve on the occupier and on the immediate landlord (if any) one month's notice in writing of their intention so to acquire such premises.

• (2) Whenever the Commissioners intend to acquire any unoccupied premises under this Act they shall serve on the owner of such premises one week's notice of their intention so to acquire such premises.

• (3) On the expiration of the notice prescribed by the foregoing sub-sections of this section the Commissioners shall be entitled to clear possession of the premises to which such notice relates, and may enter into possession and occupation thereof, and shall if necessary be entitled to take such possession by force and to have the assistance of the Civic Guard for that purpose.

• (4) Any notice required by this section to be served on an occupier shall be served by leaving the same on the premises, and any notice required by this section to be served on a landlord or owner shall be served by sending the same by post to his last known address, or, if no such address is known, to the premises and also leaving a copy of such notice on the premises or, in the case of unoccupied premises, affixing a copy of such notice to a prominent part of the premises.

• (5) Where the name of an occupier, landlord or owner on whom a notice is by this section required to be served is not known to the Commissioners, such notice may be addressed to “the occupier” or “the landlord” or “the owner” (as the case may be) of the premises without naming him.

• (6) Premises shall not be deemed to be occupied within the meaning of this Act unless some person other than a caretaker is actually residing or carrying on business therein.

3 Terms on which premises may be acquired by Commissioners.

3.—(1) All premises acquired by the Commissioners under this Act shall be acquired for such term of years and at such rent as may be agreed between the Commissioners and the occupier, immediate landlord, or owner (as the case may require), and in default of such agreement shall be taken by the Commissioners on a yearly tenancy terminable at the end of any year of the tenancy by either party on giving three months' previous notice in writing, and subject to a yearly rent to be fixed by the Commissioners.

• (2) Whenever the Commissioners acquire any premises under this Act any person (other than a caretaker) who was put out of occupation of such premises or any part thereof in order that the same might be used for the accommodation of members of the Civic Guard shall be entitled to reasonable compensation for disturbance, the amount of which shall in default of agreement be fixed by the Commissioners; and where any person being a caretaker was so put out of occupation as aforesaid it shall be lawful for the Minister for Home Affairs, if in his opinion there are any special circumstances warranting his so doing, to authorise the payment to such person of such sum by way of compensation for disturbance as the Minister aforesaid shall with the consent of the Minister for Finance think proper.

• (3) The Commissioners may make all such structural and other alterations in any premises acquired by them under this Act as appear to the Commissioners to be necessary or expedient in order to make such premises suitable for the accommodation of members of the Civic Guard, but the Commissioners shall on the termination of their tenancy in such premises at the option of the Commissioners either restore the premises to their original condition or pay to the person entitled to possession of the premises compensation measured at the amount (if any) by which the value of the premises has been reduced by such alterations, which compensation shall in default of agreement be fixed by the Commissioners.

• (4) The Commissioners shall be bound to keep all premises acquired by them under this Act in as good repair and condition during their tenancy therein as the same were in when so acquired.

4 Time during which powers under this Act may be exercised.

4.—The power of acquiring premises and the powers ancillary thereto conferred on the Commissioners by this Act shall only be exercisable during one year from the date of the passing of this Act.

5 Appeal from decision of Commissioners.

5.—Any person aggrieved by a decision of the Commissioners under this Act fixing the amount of any rent or compensation or the terms of any tenancy, may appeal from such decision to one of the panel of referees appointed under Sections 33 and 34 of the Finance (1909-10) Act, 1910, and those sections shall apply to every such appeal as fully as if the word “Commissioners” wherever it occurs in those sections had the same meaning as it has in this Act.

6 Definitions.

6.—In this Act—

the expression “the Commissioners” means the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland,

the word “premises” means any house or other building or part of a house or building and includes any stable, out-office, yard or garden belonging to such house or building or usually occupied therewith,

the word “owner” means the person entitled to clear possession of the premises,

the expression “Civic Guard” includes the Police Force in Saorstát Eireann which is at the passing of this Act commonly called or known as the Civic Guard as well as any Police Force which shall hereafter be established in Saorstát Eireann under that name by an Act of the Oireachtas.

7 Short Title.

7.—This Act may be cited as the Civic Guard (Acquisition of Premises) Act, 1923.