COURT OFFICERS ACT, 1926

• (3) Unless and until the fees to be charged in any office established by this Act are prescribed by an order under this section there shall be charged in such office the fees which immediately before the passing of this Act were chargeable in the office in which was then transacted the business assigned by this Act to the first-mentioned office.

• (4) So much of the Courts of Justice Act, 1924 (No. 10 of 1924) as authorises the fees to be charged in any court or office to be fixed by rules of court is hereby repealed.

58 Performance of their duties, etc., by principal officers and county registrars.

58.—The several powers, authorities, duties and functions conferred or imposed by Part I. of this Act on the respective officers therein referred to as principal officers and by Part II. of this Act on the county registrars shall be exercised and performed by those officers and registrars with the assistance of the officers and servants employed in the offices under their management respectively, and every such principal officer and county registrar shall arrange for the exercise and performance by officers or servants employed in the office under his management of such of his powers, authorities, duties and functions (other than those which he is for the time being expressly required by statute or rule of court to exercise or perform in person) as he cannot conveniently exercise or perform himself.

59 Nomination of court stockbrokers, court receivers, etc.

59.—(1) All such stockbrokers, receivers, auctioneers, assessors, and other persons as shall from time to time be required to be retained to render occasional services in or for any court or for any judge or officer of any court shall be nominated and retained by the Minister on such terms and conditions as he shall (subject to the sanction of the Minister for Finance in respect of any payment of remuneration out of public moneys) think proper.

• (2) Every nomination and retainer made by the Minister under the foregoing sub-section may be revoked by the Minister at any time.

• (3) Every nomination or retainer by whomsoever made of any such person as aforesaid which is in force at the commencement of any Part (other than this Part) of this Act in relation to any court, judge, or officer to which such Part relates may be revoked by the Minister at any time after such commencement, but unless and until such nomination or retainer is so revoked the same shall continue in force according to the terms thereof including any term relating to the duration thereof.

• (4) This section shall not apply to such solicitors, doctors, visitors, and other persons as have heretofore been retained or nominated by the Chief Justice in relation to the exercise of any of the jurisdictions transferred to him by section 19 of the Courts of Justice Act, 1924 (No. 10 of 1924) and all such persons shall continue to be nominated and retained by him as heretofore.

• (5) This section shall not apply to the appointment in any suit or matter by the judge or by the parties with the approval of the judge of an auctioneer, receiver, assessor, liquidator, manager, agent or other like person to render services in relation to the subject matter of such suit or matter where the appointment does not extend to any other suit or matter and either there is no person retained under this section available to render such services or the judge is of opinion that it is not expedient in the special circumstances of the case to appoint the person or any of the persons so retained.

60 Application of Civil Service Regulation Act, 1924.

60.—Save as is otherwise provided in this Act, the Civil Service Regulation Act, 1924 (No. 5 of 1924) and every Act for the time being in force amending that Act shall apply to every office and situation under this Act other than offices and situations for the time being comprised in the Schedule to the said Civil Service Regulation Act, 1924.

61 Security to be given by certain officers.

61.—(1) Every person appointed to a post or situation to which this section for the time being applies shall before entering on the duties of such post or situation give security for the discharge of the duties of such post or situation in such manner and for such amount as shall be prescribed under this section.

• (2) The Minister may with the sanction of the Minister for Finance from time to time by order prescribe the posts created by this Act and the posts and situations in the offices established by this Act to which this section shall apply and may by any such order prescribe, with the sanction of the Minister for Finance, the manner in which and the amount for which security is to be given under this section in respect of each such post and situation but so that the amount for which such security is to be given shall not in any case exceed twice the annual salary of the post or situation in respect of which the security is given.

62 Grant of civil service certificates to certain officers.

62.—(1) The Civil Service Commissioners may on the recommendation of the Minister, with the concurrence of the Minister for Finance, grant to any person (whether paid or not paid out of public moneys) who at the passing of this Act is employed during the whole of his time in an office attached to a court of justice a certificate of qualification in respect of the situation in which he is so employed in such office.

• (2) A certificate of qualification granted under the foregoing sub-section may with the consent of the Minister for Finance be expressed to take effect from a date prior to the date on which it is granted, and when a certificate of qualification is so expressed to take effect from a date prior to the date on which it is granted the person to whom the certificate is granted shall be deemed to have been paid from moneys provided by the Oireachtas within the meaning of section 17 of the Superannuation Act, 1859 as from the said date from which the certificate is expressed to take effect.

• (3) Whenever a person who at the passing of this Act is employed during the whole of his time in an office attached to a court of justice and is paid wholly or partly out of clerical allowances given out of public moneys to the head of that office is discharged from such employment or from any employment under this Act, the Minister for Finance may pay to such person on his discharge such gratuity as such Minister thinks proper, but not exceeding twice the amount of the salary and emoluments received by such person from whatsoever source during the last year of his employment.

63 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.

64 Saving for persons paid by county councils.

64.—Nothing in this Act shall apply to any person who at the passing of this Act is paid by the council of any county or county borough for rendering services to or in relation to any judge, court, or courthouse, and no such person shall for the purposes of this Act be deemed to be attached to a judge or court.

65 Preservation of judicial control of court business.

65.—(1) Nothing in this Act shall prejudice or affect the control of any judge or justice over the conduct of the business of his court.

• (2) When an officer attached to any court is engaged on duties relating to business of that court which is for the time being required by law to be transacted by or before or under or pursuant to the order of a judge or judges of that court he shall observe and obey all directions given to him by such judge or judges.

• (3) All proofs and all other documents and papers lodged in or handed in to any court in relation to or in the course of the hearing of any suit or matter shall be held by or at the order and disposal of the judge or the senior of the judges by or before whom such suit or matter is heard.

66 Salaries and expenses.

66.—(1) Every officer, servant, and other person holding or employed in any office or situation under this Act shall be paid out of moneys to be provided by the Oireachtas such salary as the Minister shall, with the sanction of the Minister for Finance, determine.

• (2) All expenses (other than the salaries aforesaid) of carrying this Act into execution shall, to such extent as may be sanctioned by the Minister for Finance be paid out of moneys to be provided by the Oireachtas.