SEEDS AND FERTILISERS SUPPLY ACT, 1956

AN ACT TO AUTHORISE COUNCILS OF COUNTIES TO MAKE SCHEMES FOR THE SALE OF WHEAT SEEDS, BARLEY SEEDS, OAT SEEDS AND SEED POTATOES AND OF FERTILISERS AND TO MAKE SCHEMES FOR THE GIVING OF GUARANTEES IN RESPECT OF SALES OF ANY SUCH SEEDS, SEED POTATOES OR FERTILISERS AND TO PROVIDE FOR OTHER MATTERS (INCLUDING CERTAIN VALIDATIONS) RELATED TO THE MATTERS AFORESAID. [22nd May, 1956.]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:—

1 Interpretation.

1.—(1) In this Act—

“goods” means seeds and fertilisers or seeds only or fertilisers only, as the case may require;

“the Minister” means the Minister for Local Government;

“sale period” means a period not exceeding twelve months and ending on the 31st day of July in any year;

“seeds” means only wheat seeds, barley seeds, oat seeds and seed potatoes.

• (2) References in this Act to the sale of goods by or to the purchase of goods from the council of a county shall be construed as including transactions in which the council arrange or have arranged for the supply of goods by a dealer in those goods to a person authorised by the council to receive such supply.

2 Schemes for sales.

2.—(1) The council of a county may make and carry out a scheme whereby they undertake to sell during a specified sale period seeds and fertilisers or seeds only or fertilisers only to any occupier or cultivator of land in the county or a particular portion thereof.

• (2) A scheme under this section shall not be made before the commencement of the period of thirteen months ending on the last day of the sale period specified in the scheme.

• (3) Where the council of a county sell pursuant to a scheme under this section seeds and fertilisers or either of them, they may ascertain the total amount of the costs and expenses (other than the price paid by the council for the seeds and fertilisers or seeds or fertilisers, as the case may be) incurred by the council in respect of all sales pursuant to the scheme and may apportion that amount amongst the several persons to whom the sales were made, and thereupon the sum so apportioned to any such person shall be added to, and form and be deemed always to have formed part of, the sum owing to the council by that person in respect of the sale pursuant to the scheme made to him and shall be recoverable under this Act accordingly, notwithstanding that no agreement for the payment thereof was made at the time of such sale.

• (4) Where the council of a county sell pursuant to a scheme under this section any goods to any person, the sum payable by him to the council in respect of the sale shall carry interest at such rate per cent. per annum as may be fixed in that behalf by the council, notwithstanding that no agreement to pay interest was made at the time of the sale.

• (5) Any sum owing to the council of a county in respect of any sale pursuant to a scheme under this section of any goods (including the interest and proportion of costs and expenses payable by virtue of this section) shall be paid to the council in the manner and within the period specified by the scheme, and may be collected and recovered in the manner authorised by this Act.

• (6) The making under this section of a scheme shall be a reserved function for the purposes of the County Management Acts, 1940 to 1955.

3 Schemes for guarantees.

3.—(1) The council of a county may make and carry out a scheme whereby they undertake to guarantee to any approved seed merchant the due payment to the merchant of the whole or a specified proportion of the price payable by an approved occupier or cultivator of land in the county for seeds and fertilisers or seeds only or fertilisers only supplied by the merchant to the occupier or cultivator during a specified sale period.

• (2) A scheme under this section shall not be made before the commencement of the period of thirteen months ending on the last day of the sale period specified in the scheme.

• (3) Where the council of a county give pursuant to a scheme under this section a guarantee to an approved seed merchant and, in consequence of the default of the occupier or cultivator to whom the guarantee relates, the council make any payment to the merchant under the guarantee, any sum lawfully recoverable by the council from the occupier or cultivator or his sureties (if any) on account of the payment shall (in addition and without prejudice to any other method of recovery) be recoverable under this Act as if it were a sum payable by the occupier, cultivator or surety (as the case may be) in respect of a sale of goods to him by the council pursuant to a scheme under this Act.

• (4) The making under this section of a scheme shall be a reserved function for the purposes of the County Management Acts, 1940 to 1955.

• (5) In this section “approved” means approved of by the council concerned.

4 Recovery of sums payable to county councils under schemes.

4.—In addition and without prejudice to any other method of recovering any sum payable to the council of a county in respect of or on account of a sale of goods by the council pursuant to a scheme under this Act during a sale period, every sum which is not paid to or recovered by the council before the 1st day of January next after the end of that period may—

• (a) if the person by whom it is payable is rated (otherwise than as owner of a small dwelling within the meaning of the Local Government (Rates on Small Dwellings) Act, 1928 (No. 4 of 1928)) to the county rate in the county, be recovered by the levying by the council of a special rate assessed on the tenement, or such one as the council shall select of the tenements, in respect of which such person is so rated and shall be collected and may be recovered in the same manner and by the same means as the county rate, or

• (b) if the person by whom it is payable is not rated as aforesaid to the county rate in the county, be recovered by means of a special rate to be made by the council for the purposes of this section to which such person shall be rated and which shall be collected and may be recovered in the same manner and by the same means as the county rate.

5 Partial recoupment by the State of irrecoverable sums.

5.—The Minister, with the consent of the Minister for Finance shall, out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas, recoup to any council of a county one-half of every sum in respect of which all of the following conditions apply:

• (a) the sum has become payable by any person to the council in respect of or on account of a sale of goods pursuant to a scheme under this Act by the council to that person or in respect of or on account of a payment made by the council to a seed merchant in pursuance of a guarantee given pursuant to a scheme under this Act to the merchant in respect of goods supplied by him to that person,

• (b) the Minister is satisfied that, before making the sale or giving the guarantee (as the case may be) in relation to which the sum became payable to the council, the council took reasonable care in regard to the selection or approval of that person,

• (c) the sum is certified by the Minister to be irrecoverable by the council from that person.

6 Power to borrow.

6.—The council of a county may borrow with the sanction of the Minister sums required for the purpose of providing goods to be sold by the council pursuant to a scheme under this Act, and any sum so borrowed shall not be reckoned as part of the debt of the council for the purpose of any enactment limiting the borrowing powers of the council.

7 Validations.

7.—Where the sale period specified in a scheme made by the council of a county under this Act ends on the 31st day of July, 1956—

• (a) anything effected by the council of the county (whether before or after the passing of this Act) before and in anticipation of the making of the scheme shall be valid for all purposes in like manner as if both this Act and the scheme had been in operation when it was effected, and it shall be regarded as having been effected under the relevant provision of this Act or the scheme, and

• (b) any sanction with respect to borrowing given by the Minister (whether before or after the passing of this Act) before and in anticipation of the making of the scheme shall be valid for all purposes in like manner as if both this Act and the scheme had been in operation when it was given, and it shall be regarded as having been given under section 6 of this Act.

8 Short title.

8.—This Act may be cited as the Seeds and Fertilisers Supply Act, 1956.