PART III.

General Provisions and Repeals.

17. —(1) No proceedings under the Criminal Injuries Acts or any Act repealed by this Act shall be instituted after the passing of this Act in respect of any injury to which this section applies.

(2) All proceedings under the Acts aforesaid which are pending at the passing of this Act in respect of an injury to which this section applies and in which no decree has been made shall be and are hereby declared to be void and to be discharged, and no party to any such proceedings shall have any claim against any other party thereto in respect of costs incurred in such proceedings.

(3) It shall not be lawful for any person after the passing of this Act to take any steps to recover or enforce payment of the amount of any decree made before the passing of this Act under the Acts aforesaid in respect of any injury to which this section applies.

This sub-section shall apply to all costs and expenses as well as to compensation awarded by any such decree, and to the interest on any such compensation which carries interest.

(4) This section shall apply to proceedings in and decrees on any appeal as well as to proceedings in and decrees of a court of first instance.

(5) This section shall apply to all injuries to the person which occurred after the 11th day of July, 1921, and on or before the 20th day of March, 1923.

(6) This section shall not apply to or prevent the presentation or prosecution of a claim to or before any Commission of Inquiry in respect of any injury to which this section applies.

18. —(1) If the Governor-General of the Irish Free State is satisfied on the advice of the Executive Council that the Judge of any County Court is unable, owing to the number of applications under the Criminal Injuries Acts or this Act which are pending in his court, to transact the business of the court with proper dispatch, the Governor-General of the Irish Free State may on the advice aforesaid appoint the Judge of the County Court of any other county or county borough or a practising barrister of not less than ten years' standing to act as additional judge of the first mentioned County Court for such time as the Governor-General of the Irish Free State may on the advice aforesaid direct and subject to such conditions as he may on the advice aforesaid impose.

(2) Every additional Judge appointed under this section shall receive out of the moneys provided by the Oireachtas such remuneration as the Minister for Finance may appoint and shall have all the powers, jurisdiction, and privileges and may perform any of the duties of the judge of the County Court to which he is appointed as additional judge, whether under the Criminal Injuries Acts or this Act or otherwise.

19. —The power to make rules for the purposes of Section 5 of the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898 (61 & 62 Vict. ch. 37) shall extend to the making of rules of Court for the purposes of this Act.

20. —Notwithstanding anything in sub-section 6 of section 51 of the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898 (61 and 62 Vict. ch. 37), or in Section 2 of the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1900 (63 and 64 Vict. ch. 63) or any other enactment, a rate may be made at any time for raising money for the payment of compensation for criminal injury, and the amount thereof shall not be reckoned for the purposes of any enactment imposing a limitation upon the amount of the rate that may be raised.

21. —(1) Section 137 of the Grand Jury (Ireland) Act, 1836 (6 & 7 Will. IV. ch. 116), which relates to the giving in of examinations and the making of recognisances, shall cease to have effect and shall be deemed to have ceased to have effect as from the 23rd day of December, 1920.

(2) The powers of the court or judge under any rules of court made, whether before or after the passing of this Act, in pursuance of sub-section (7) of section 5 of the Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898 (61 & 62 Vict. ch. 37), shall include, and be deemed to have included as from the 23rd day of December, 1920, power to extend or vary the time prescribed by any statute or statutory rules for making an application for compensation for criminal injuries, or for serving any notice or for doing any other act, or taking any proceedings in relation to the application in any case where it appears to the court or judge that such extension or variation is just and reasonable for any cause whatsoever.

22. —(1) The Acts specified in the First Schedule to this Act are hereby repealed.

(2) The repeal of section 3 of the Criminal Injuries (Ireland) Act, 1920, effected by this section shall be retrospective to the extent that every order of certiorari and every order for attachment made under that section before the passing of this Act shall be, and be deemed always to have been, void and of no effect, and any money paid under or in pursuance of any such order shall be repaid by the person who obtained such order to the Council to which such money would have been payable but for such order, so soon as the compensation awarded by the decree on which such order was founded or any grant in lieu of such compensation is payable to such person by the Minister for Finance.

(3) The repeal of section 4 of the Criminal Injuries (Ireland) Act, 1920, effected by this section shall be retrospective to the extent that so much as is at the passing of this Act unpaid of the amount recovered (excluding therefrom any sums recovered for costs or expenses) under any decree made against a County Council after the 23rd day of December, 1920, and before the passing of this Act shall not carry any interest but such repeal shall be without prejudice to and shall not give any right of repayment in respect of any interest actually paid under the said section before the passing of this Act.

(4) This section shall not prevent the presentation or prosecution of a claim to or before any Commission of Inquiry in respect of an injury to which the Acts hereby repealed apply.

23. —In this Act:—

the expression “Criminal Injuries Acts” means the enactments specified in the Second Schedule to this Act;

the word “injury” means any loss, damage or injury in respect of which compensation could be given under the Criminal Injuries Acts;

the word “Judge” includes a Recorder and also includes a Judge of Assizes or other Judge or Court hearing appeals from a County Court Judge or Recorder.

24. —This Act may be cited as the Damage to Property (Compensation) Act, 1923.