LAND ACT, 1984

AN ACT TO AMEND AND EXTEND THE LAND PURCHASE ACTS. [16th December, 1984]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:

1 Short title, construction and collective citation.

1.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Land Act, 1984.

• (2) This Act shall be construed as one with the Land Purchase Acts and may be cited with those Acts.

2 Definitions.

2.—In this Act, save where the context otherwise requires—

“land reclamation annuity” means a land reclamation annuity under the Land Reclamation Act, 1949;

“purchase annuity” means an annual payment to the Land Commission under the Land Purchase Acts in repayment of an advance made by the Land Commission under those Acts.

3 Exclusion of leases of agricultural land from application of certain enactments.

3.—(1) The following enactments shall not apply to a lease of agricultural land made after the passing of this Act:

• (a) sections 70 and 71 of the Landlord and Tenant Law Amendment Act, Ireland, 1860,

• (b) sections 3, 4 and 7 of the Landlord and Tenant (Ireland) Act, 1870,

• (c) sections 1, 4, 13 and 22 of the Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1881,

• (d) sections 7 (3) and 30 (2) of the Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1887, and

• (e) section 16 of the Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1896.

• (2) In this section “lease of agricultural land” means any instrument in writing (whether under seal or not) containing a contract of tenancy in respect of land used wholly or mainly for the purpose of agriculture, horticulture or forestry.

4 Provisions in relation to purchase annuities, land reclamation annuities and certain other annual payments to Land Commission.

4.—(1) (a) The Minister for Agriculture may, with the approval of the Minister for Finance, waive, and shall be deemed always to have had power to waive, the payment of any sum of less than £2 falling due for payment on or after the 1st day of November, 1979, being a sum due in respect of—

• (i) a purchase annuity,

• (ii) a land reclamation annuity,

• (iii) any other annual payment to the Land Commission.

• (b) The Minister for Agriculture may, with the approval of the Minister for Finance, by order substitute another amount for the amount mentioned in paragraph (a) of this subsection and that subsection shall apply and have effect in accordance with the provisions of any such order for the time being in force.

• (c) An order under this subsection shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and if a resolution approving of the order is not passed by each such House within the next 21 days after that House has sat after the order is laid before it, the order shall lapse, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

• (2) In section 80 of the Building Societies Act, 1976, “prior mortgage”, notwithstanding section 2 of that Act, does not include and shall be deemed never to have included, a charge on land to secure payment of—

• (a) a purchase annuity,

• (b) a land reclamation annuity, or

• (c) any other annual payment to the Land Commission not specified in the Building Societies (Amendment) Act, 1983.

5 Dissolution of Purchase Annuities Fund.

5.—(1) The Purchase Annuities Fund established under section 12 of the Land Act, 1923, is hereby dissolved and, accordingly, section 12 (2) of that Act and the Land (Purchase Annuities Fund) Act, 1933, are hereby repealed.

• (2) Any sums standing to the credit of the Purchase Annuities Fund upon the passing of this Act and any sums that, but for this section, would be paid into that Fund shall be paid into, or disposed of, in accordance with the directions of the Minister for Finance, for the benefit of, the Exchequer.

6 Date of setting up of purchase annuities.

6.—The Land Commission may determine in writing that a purchase annuity, or any part thereof, set up at any time after the passing of this Act was set up at such earlier time, whether before, on or after such passing, as may be specified in the determination and where the Land Commission make a determination under this section, the purchase annuity concerned or the part concerned of a purchase annuity, as the case may be, shall be deemed, for all the purposes of the Land Purchase Acts, to have been set up at the time specified in the determination.

7 Dissolution of Irish Church Temporalities Fund.

7.—(1) In this section “the Fund” means the Irish Church Temporalities Fund established under the Irish Church Act, 1869.

• (2) The Fund is hereby dissolved.

• (3) Any rent charges in lieu of tithes, perpetuity rents or other periodic payments, subsisting on the 28th day of September, 1975, and payable to the Fund shall be deemed to have been extinguished on that day and any payments due and owing to the Fund on that day shall cease to be payable.

• (4) Any sums standing to the credit of the Fund upon the commencement of this section and any sums that, but for subsection (2) of this section, would be paid into the Fund, shall be paid into, or disposed of, in accordance with the directions of the Minister for Finance, for the benefit of, the Exchequer.

• (5) This section shall come into operation on the 1st day of January, 1985.

8 Amendment of section 63 of Irish Land Act, 1903.

8.—Section 63 of the Irish Land Act, 1903, is hereby amended—

• (a) by the substitution of “£1,000” for “thirty pounds” in each place where it occurs, and

• (b) by the substitution of “£3,000” for “one hundred pounds” in subsection (2).

9 Amendment of section 46 of Land Act, 1923.

9.—(1) Section 46 of the Land Act, 1923, shall apply to a person having an interest in land (other than land registered under the Registration of Title Act, 1964) entitling him to the occupation of the land as it applies to an owner of land registered under the said Registration of Title Act, 1964, and the said section 46 shall apply and have effect accordingly with the following modifications and with any other necessary modifications:

• (a) references to the registered owner of a holding shall be construed as including references to a person having an interest such as aforesaid in land,

• (b) references to a holding shall be construed as including references to such an interest,

• (c) the reference in subsection (3) to the date of the registration of the transfer shall be construed as a reference to the date of the transfer and the reference in that subsection to an estate in fee simple shall be construed as a reference to the interest of the person in the land,

• (d) “(being registered land)” shall be inserted after “original holding” in subsection (5),

• (e) subsection (6) shall, in case the person is an infant, lunatic or person of unsound mind, extend to any person by whom he could be represented for the purposes of the Registration of Title Act, 1964, if he were the registered owner of land.

• (2) The Registrar shall, on the application of the Land Commission, in respect of an interest in land of which the Commission are the owners by virtue of an exchange under this section, register the Land Commission in the appropriate register as the owners of the interest.

• (3) This section shall be construed as one with the Registration of Title Act, 1964.

10 Amendment of sections 35, 38 and 39 of Land Act, 1931.

10.—(1) Section 35 of the Land Act, 1931, is hereby amended—

• (a) by the substitution of “£1,000” for “one hundred pounds” (inserted by the Land Act, 1965) in each place where it occurs,

• (b) by the substitution of “£3,000” for “three hundred pounds” (inserted by the Land Act, 1965) in each place where it occurs, and

• (c) by the substitution of “£15,000” for “two thousand pounds” (inserted by the Land Act, 1965) in subsection (5).

• (2) Section 38 of the Land Act, 1931, is hereby amended by the substitution of “£2,000” for “two hundred pounds” (inserted by the Land Act, 1965) in subsection (2).

• (3) Section 39 of the Land Act, 1931, is hereby amended by the substitution of “£2,000” for “two hundred pounds” (inserted by the Land Act, 1965) in subsection (4).

11 Amendment of section 52 of Land Act, 1933.

11.—Section 52 of the Land Act, 1933, is hereby amended—

• (a) by the substitution of “£1,000” for “one hundred pounds” (inserted by the Land Act, 1965) in each place where it occurs, and

• (b) by the substitution of “£3,000” for “three hundred pounds” (inserted by the Land Act, 1965) in each place where it occurs.

12 Amendment of section 33 of Land Act, 1936, and section 16 of Land Act, 1953.

12.—The reference in section 33 of the Land Act, 1936, to the whole of the purchase money of every parcel of untenanted land shall be construed as including a reference to a part of such purchase money and the reference in section 16 of the Land Act, 1953, to the whole of the purchase money of every congested districts holding within the meaning of sections 22 and 23 of the Land Act, 1931, shall be construed as including a reference to a part of such purchase money.

13 Amendment of section 30 of Land Act, 1950.

13.—Section 30 of the Land Act, 1950, is hereby amended by the insertion in subsection (7) after paragraph (f) of the following paragraph:

• “(ff) the vesting in the trustees of the scheme of the land to which the scheme relates in fee simple subject to any annuity or charge thereon of a kind referred to in subsection (11) and of any other property the subject of the scheme,”.

14 Repeals.

14.—(1) Each enactment mentioned in the Schedule to this Act is hereby repealed to the extent specified in column (3) of that Schedule.

• (2) This section shall come into operation on the 1st day of January, 1985.

SCHEDULE Enactments Repealed