STATE FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS (SPECIAL PROVISIONS) ACT, 1984

AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE CARRYING OUT TEMPORARILY, IN CIRCUMSTANCES WHERE THEY CANNOT BE CARRIED OUT UNDER AND IN ACCORDANCE WITH EXISTING STATUTORY OR OTHER ARRANGEMENTS, OF CERTAIN STATE FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS UNDER AND IN ACCORDANCE WITH SUCH ARRANGEMENTS AS MAY BE MADE IN THAT BEHALF BY THE MINISTER FOR FINANCE AND TO PROVIDE FOR CONNECTED MATTERS. [14th December, 1984]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:

1 Definitions.

1.—In this Act—

“the Central Bank” means the Central Bank of Ireland;

“commercial bank” means a person who is the holder of a licence for the time being in force under section 9 of the Central Bank Act, 1971;

“the Minister” means the Minister for Finance;

“State account” means an account (other than the Exchequer Account) kept at the Central Bank by a Minister of the Government or a Department of State or any branch or officer of the public service whose business, powers, duties or functions are comprised in a Department of State whether by virtue of the Ministers and Secretaries Acts, 1924 to 1983, or otherwise.

2 Temporary arrangements for carrying out certain State financial transactions.

2.—(1) (a) Whenever the Minister is satisfied that, owing to special circumstances of a temporary nature, it is not possible to do any one or more of the following, that is to say, to operate the Exchequer Account in accordance with the provisions of the Exchequer and Audit Departments Act, 1866, to operate a State account or to carry out any other financial transaction on behalf of the State, he may, if he believes that it is in the national interest to do so, by order or orders appoint a day or days on which subsections (2) and (3) of this section, or either of them or any of their provisions, shall come, or be deemed to have come, into operation and the subsection or subsections, or the provisions of those subsections, specified in such an order shall come or, as appropriate, be deemed to have come, into operation on the day specified in that behalf in the order in relation thereto.

• (b) Whenever, at a time when the provisions, or any of the provisions, of subsections (2) and (3) of this section are in force, the Minister ceases to be satisfied as aforesaid, he shall, as soon as may be thereafter, make an order appointing a day (being a day not later than seven days after the day on which the order is made) on and from which the provisions of those subsections that are then in force shall cease to be in force and the said provisions shall cease to be in force as on and from the day so appointed.

• (c) An order, or part of an order, under paragraph (a) of this subsection may, if so expressed, have retrospective effect, but no such order or part shall appoint a day earlier than the 26th day of November, 1984, as the day on which a provision of this section shall be deemed to have come into operation.

• (2)
• (a) Notwithstanding anything in the Exchequer and Audit Departments Act, 1866, and section 49 of the Central Bank Act, 1971, the procedures provided under those, or any other, statutes for bringing to account revenue of the State and other public moneys and making issues of moneys on behalf of the State that, but for this subsection, would involve operations on the Exchequer Account or a State account shall be carried out under and in accordance with such arrangements (including the transfer of the Exchequer Account or any State account to a commercial bank or any other institution) as may be made in that behalf by the Minister after consultation with the Comptroller and Auditor General.

• (b) Moneys that, but for this subsection, would be payable into or out of a State account that is required by or under the provisions of any statute to be kept at the Central Bank shall be paid under and in accordance with such arrangements as may be made in that behalf by the Minister.

• (c) During any time that, and for so long only as, the Exchequer Account stands transferred under subsection (2) of this section to a commercial bank or any other institution, the references in sections 10, 11, 13 and 15 of the Exchequer and Audit Departments Act, 1866, as amended by the Central Bank Act, 1971, to the Central Bank shall be construed as references to the commercial bank or other institution to which the Exchequer Account then stands transferred.

• (3)
• (a) Whenever the Minister is satisfied that the redemption of, or the payment of interest or a dividend on, a particular security listed on the Stock Exchange-Irish (being a land bond issued under the Land Purchase Acts or an order made thereunder or any security denominated in Irish pounds and issued under section 54 of the Finance Act, 1970) cannot be effected, he may by order postpone such redemption or payment, as the case may be.

• (b) The Minister may by order amend or revoke an order under this subsection, including an order under this subparagraph.

• (c) An order, or part of an order, under paragraph (a) or (b) of this subsection may, if so expressed, have retrospective effect but no such order or part shall appoint a day earlier than the 30th day of November, 1984, as the day on which the order or part, as the case may be, shall be deemed to have come into operation.

3 Redemption of, and payment of interest or dividends on, certain securities.

3.—(1) Where, at a time when an order under subsection (3) of section 2 of this Act postponing the redemption of, or the payment of interest or a dividend on, a security is in force, that subsection ceases, by virtue of an order under subsection (1) of that section, to be in force, the Minister shall, as soon as may be thereafter, by order fix a day, not being more than three months after such cesser, for the redemption of, or, as the case may be, the payment of the interest or the dividend on, the security, and, if the order relates to the redemption of a security, the security shall, subject to the provisions of the Government Loans (Conversion) Act, 1951, be redeemed on that day, and, if the order relates to the payment of interest or a dividend on the security, the said interest or dividend shall be paid on that day.

• (2) Where an order is made under subsection (1) of this section, interest at such rate as may be specified in the order shall be paid on the security the redemption of which was postponed by the order, or the interest or the dividend the payment of which was so postponed, as the case may be, in respect of the period of the postponement.

• (3) The Minister may by order revoke or amend an order under this section including this subsection.

4 Laying of orders before Houses of the Oireachtas.

4.—Every order under this Act (other than section 2 (1) (b)) shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the order is passed by either such House within the next twenty-one days on which that House has sat after the order has been laid before it, the order shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

5 Expenses of Minister.

5.—The expenses incurred by the Minister in the administration of this Act shall be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.

6 Short title.

6.—This Act may be cited as the State Financial Transactions (Special Provisions) Act, 1984.