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27 1926

COURT OFFICERS ACT, 1926

PART III.

The District Court.

Appointment of district court clerks.

46. —(1) There shall be attached to the District Court such and so many district court clerks as the Minister shall, with the sanction of the Minister for Finance, from time to time direct.

(2) Subject to the provisions of this section, every district court clerk shall be appointed by the Minister and shall (unless he is a pensionable officer) hold office at the will of and may be removed by the Minister.

(3) Every person who immediately before the commencement of this Part 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 shall, on the commencement of this Part of this Act, become and be a district court clerk under this Act and shall hold such office on the same terms and conditions in all respects as if he had been appointed thereto by the Minister under this Act.

(4) Every person who becomes a district court clerk under this Act by virtue of the next preceding sub-section of this section shall, when computing the period of his service for the purposes of the Superannuation Acts, 1834 to 1923, be entitled to reckon as continuous service for those purposes whatever period (if any) of service he was immediately before the commencement of this Part of this Act entitled to reckon as service for those purposes and his period of pensionable service as a district court clerk under this Act.

(5) The district court clerk's office shall for the purposes of this Act be deemed to be an office established by this Act.

District court areas.

47. —(1) The Minister shall divide every district prescribed by him under section 68 of the Courts of Justice Act, 1924 (No. 10 of 1924) into such and so many convenient areas (in this Part of this Act referred to as district court areas) as he shall think proper and may divide any such district into different district court areas for the purposes of different classes of business transacted in the District Court.

(2) The Minister shall appoint one or more convenient places in every district court area or within one mile of the boundary of such area in which, and such and so many convenient days and hours at which, the District Court shall be held for the purpose of transacting for such district court area the business for the transaction of which such area was delimited.

(3) It shall be lawful for the Minister from time to time, as he shall consider expedient, to do all or any of the following things, that is to say:—

(a) vary or abolish any district prescribed by him under the said section 68 of the Courts of Justice Act, 1924 ;

(b) create any new such district;

(c) vary or abolish any district court area;

(d) create any new district court area;

(e) vary the class or classes of business for which any district court area is delimited;

(f) alter the places or vary the days or hours appointed under this section for holding the District Court in or for any district court area.

(4) The district court areas created under this section shall for all purposes take the place of and be substituted for the court districts created under section 3 of the District Justices (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1923 (No. 6 of 1923), and the sittings of the District Court for the transaction for any such district court area of the business for which such district court area is delimited shall be held in the places on the days, and at the hours appointed therefor under this section.

Duties of district court clerks.

48. —(1) Every district court clerk shall be assigned to such one or more district court areas as the Minister shall from time to time direct and shall have and exercise all such powers and authorities and perform and fulfil all such duties and functions in relation to the District Court in such district court area or areas as shall from time to time be conferred or imposed on him by statute or rule of court and in particular (unless and until otherwise provided by statute or rules of court) shall have and exercise all such powers and authorities and perform and fulfil all such duties and functions in such district court area or areas as immediately before the commencement of this Part of this Act were vested by law in or required by law to be performed or fulfilled by the district court clerk or, in the Dublin Metropolitan Area and the County Borough of Cork, by the chief and other clerks of the District Court in that area and borough respectively.

(2) In addition to the powers, authorities, duties and functions mentioned in the foregoing sub-section, every district court clerk in the Dublin Metropolitan Area shall have, exercise, perform and fulfil, within so much of that Area as is within his district court area all the powers, authorities, duties and functions vested or imposed by any statutes in force immediately before the commencement of this Part of this Act in or on the chief clerk, or the principal clerk, or any other clerk of the Dublin Metropolitan Police Courts.

Payment of salaries of district court clerks.

49. —(1) From the commencement of this Part of this Act until the appointed day the salaries and allowances of all district court clerks assigned to any district or districts within the Dublin Metropolitan Area shall be paid out of moneys to be provided by the Oireachtas and the salaries and allowances of all district court clerks assigned to any district or districts outside the Dublin Metropolitan Area shall be paid out of the invested funds and other moneys for the time being in the hands of the registrar of district court clerks or standing in the name of that registrar either alone or jointly with any other public official, and any deficiency in such funds or moneys to meet the amounts of such salaries shall, to such extent as the Minister for Finance may sanction, be made good out of moneys to be provided by the Oireachtas.

(2) In this and the two following sections the expression “the appointed day” means such day as the Minister shall by order appoint to be the appointed day for the purpose of those sections, and the expression “registrar of district court clerks” means the person appointed under the Petty Sessions Clerk (Ireland) Act, 1858, to discharge the duties prescribed by that Act for the registrar to perform.

Abolition of Registrar of District Court Clerks.

50. —(1) As on the appointed day the office of registrar of district court clerks shall cease to exist and after that day such of the duties of that office as continue to exist shall be discharged by the principal officer of the Department of Justice or by such other officer of the Minister as the Minister shall from time to time direct.

(2) The fund known as the District Court Clerks' Fund shall; be wound up as on the appointed day and so soon as may be after that day all invested funds and all other moneys on that day in the hands of the registrar of district court clerks or standing in the name of that registrar either alone or jointly with any other public official and being or representing moneys collected by or under the control of the registrar of district court clerks shall be paid into or disposed for the benefit of the Exchequer in such manner as the Minister for Finance shall direct.

(3) From and after the appointed day all salaries, allowances, and expenses theretofore chargeable on or payable out of moneys collected by or under the control of the registrar of district court clerks shall, if and so far as the same continue to be payable, be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.

(4) If any person who immediately before the appointed day is employed in a pensionable capacity in the office of the registrar of district court clerks is appointed on or after the appointed day in a pensionable capacity to a situation in the Civil Service of Saorstát Eireann, the Acts which immediately before the appointed day 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 in a pensionable capacity in the Civil Service of Saorstát Eireann apply to him in the same manner and to the same extent as they applied to him immediately before the appointed day 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 his period of service in a pensionable capacity in the office of the registrar of district court clerks and his period of service in a pensionable capacity in a situation in the Civil Service of Saorstát Eireann 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 moneys to be provided by the Oireachtas.

Disposal of fines, etc.

51. —(1) Save as is otherwise provided under this section, all fines, amerciaments, penalties and forfeited recognisances imposed or levied by any court after the appointed day shall be paid into or disposed for the benefit of the Exchequer in such manner as the Minister for Finance shall direct and notwithstanding any enactment to the contrary, no part of any such fine, amerciament, penalty, or recognisance shall be paid or allowed to any prosecutor, informer, or other person or paid into any fund.

(2) So much of any fine, amerciament, penalty, or forfeited recognisance imposed or levied by any court on or before the appointed day as is not received by the registrar of district court clerks on or before that day or lawfully paid before, on, or after that day to a prosecutor, informer, or other person shall (save as is otherwise provided under this section) be paid into or disposed for the benefit of the Exchequer in such manner as the Minister for Finance shall direct.

(3) Whenever any fine, amerciament, penalty, or forfeited recognisance is remitted in whole or in part after the same has been paid into or disposed for the benefit of the Exchequer under this section, such fine, amerciament, penalty or forfeited recognisance or the portion thereof so remitted (as the case may be) shall be repaid out of the Exchequer in such manner as the Minister for Finance shall direct.

(4) The Minister may, with the concurrence of the Minister for Finance, by order direct that the whole or any specified portion of every fine or penalty belonging to any particular class or classes of fines or penalties specified in the order shall not be paid into the Exchequer under this section and that, in lieu of being so paid, the whole or such specified portion (as the case may be) of every such fine or penalty shall be paid to such prosecutor, informer, or other person or into such fund and upon such terms and conditions as shall be specified in the order in respect of each particular class or classes of fines.