COURTS (NO. 2) ACT, 1988

AN ACT TO ENABLE WARRANTS UNDER THE COURTS OF JUSTICE (DISTRICT COURT) ACT, 1949, EXTENDING THE AGE OF RETIREMENT OF CERTAIN JUSTICES OF THE DISTRICT COURT TO BE MADE RETROSPECTIVELY IN CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES AND TO PROVIDE FOR CERTAIN VALIDATIONS. [20th December, 1988]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:

1 Power, in certain circumstances, to make warrants retrospectively under section 2 of Act.

1.—(1) Where—

• (a) a person held office as a justice of the District Court immediately before he reached the age of 65, 66, 67, 68 or 69 years,

• (b) the person purported to hold office as such a justice during any period commencing on the day on which he reached the age of 65, 66, 67, 68 or 69 years and ending at any time before the day on which he reaches or reached the age of 70 years,

• (c) no warrant was made under section 2 of the Act in respect of the year or any of the years of which the period consists or in which it is included,

• (d) the Committee are satisfied that the omission to make a warrant or warrants under the said section 2 in respect of the year or years of which the period consists or in which it is included is attributable to error or oversight, and

• (e) the Committee are satisfied that the person was not, when the warrant or warrants aforesaid fell to be made, suffering from any disability which rendered him unfit to continue to discharge efficiently the duties of the office of justice of the District Court,

the Committee may, if they so think proper after consultation with the Minister, make a warrant or warrants under the said section 2 in relation to the person for the year or years of which the period consists or in which it is included.

• (2) Where a warrant (referred to subsequently in this Act as “the specified warrant”) is made under section 2 of the Act by virtue of subsection (1) of this section—

• (a) everything (including the satisfying of any condition precedent to the exercise or performance of a power, function or duty) done, or purporting to have been done, by, to or on behalf or in respect of the person to whom the specified warrant relates or any other person during the year to which it relates shall be, and be deemed always to have been, as valid and effectual as if a warrant had been duly made before the commencement of that year under the said section 2 in respect of the person for that year, and

• (b) the remuneration and other conditions of service of the person during the year to which the specified warrant relates shall be, and be deemed always to have been, as if a warrant had been duly made before the commencement of that year under the said section 2 in respect of the person for that year.

• (3) If, because of any validation expressed to be effected by subsection (2) of this section, that subsection would, but for this subsection, conflict with a constitutional right of any person, the validation shall be subject to such limitation as is necessary to secure that it does not so conflict but shall be otherwise of full force and effect.

• (4) In this section—

“the Act” means the Courts of Justice (District Court) Act, 1949;

“the Committee” means the committee established by section 2 of the Act;

“the Minister” means the Minister for Justice;

“warrant” means a warrant under section 2 of the Act.

2 Short title and collective citation.

2.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Courts (No. 2) Act, 1988.

• (2) The collective citation “the Courts (Supplemental Provisions) Acts, 1961 to 1988” shall include this Act and the said Courts (Supplemental Provisions) Acts, 1961 to 1988, shall be construed together as one.