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45 1936

INSURANCE ACT, 1936

PART VI.

The Re-Insurance Company of Ireland, Limited.

Formation and registration of Re-Insurance Company of Ireland, Limited.

77. —Immediately after the commencement of this Part of this Act the Minister for Finance shall, after consultation with the Minister, take all such steps as appear to him to be necessary or desirable to procure that a limited company (in this Part of this Act and in the Fifth Schedule to this Act referred to as the Company) conforming to the conditions laid down in the Fifth Schedule to this Act shall be formed and registered in Saorstát Eireann under the Companies Acts, 1908 to 1924.

Loan to the Company to pay expenses of formation.

78. —(1) The Minister for Finance may out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas lend to the Company upon such terms and conditions as to time and manner of repayment, rate of interest, security and other matters whatsoever as he shall think proper, a sum not exceeding seven thousand pounds.

(2) Any moneys lent to the Company under this section shall be applied by the Company in or towards paying the expenses of the promotion, formation and registration of the Company and the other preliminary expenses of the Company, and for no other purposes.

(3) All sums paid to the Minister for Finance by the Company in or towards repayment of any moneys lent to the Company under this section or in payment of the interest on such moneys shall be paid into the Exchequer.

Issue of share capital of the Company.

79. —No issue of the share capital of the Company shall be made at any time, unless the Minister for Finance, after consultation with the Minister, has authorised such issue.

Underwriting by the Minister for Finance of issue of shares.

80. —The Minister for Finance may, subject to such conditions as he may think fit, agree with the Company that, if any shares in the Company about to be offered at any time for subscription are not taken up within a specified time by the public, he will take up and pay for such shares or some specified proportion thereof.

Charge of moneys on the Central Fund.

81. —(1) All moneys from time to time required to meet payments required to be made by the Minister for Finance to the Company in respect of shares in the Company taken up by him under this Act shall be advanced out of the Central Fund or the growing produce thereof.

(2) For the purpose of providing money for the sums advanced out of the Central Fund under this section, the Minister for Finance may borrow from any person any sum or sums, and for the purpose of such borrowing the said Minister may create and issue securities bearing such rate of interest, and subject to such conditions as to repayment, redemption or otherwise as he shall think fit.

(3) The principal and interest of any securities issued under this section and the expenses incurred in connection with the issue of such securities shall be charged on the Central Fund or the growing produce thereof.

(4) Any money raised by securities issued under this section shall be placed to the credit of the account of the Exchequer and shall form part of the Central Fund and be available in any manner in which such Fund is available.

Payment of dividends, etc., into the Exchequer.

82. —All dividends, bonus and other moneys received by the Minister for Finance in respect of shares of the Company held by him shall be paid into or disposed of for the benefit of the Exchequer as the said Minister may direct.

Powers of the Minister for Finance as shareholder.

83. —The Minister for Finance may, so long as he holds any of the shares of the Company, exercise all or any of the rights and powers from time to time exercisable by the holder of such shares, and where such rights or powers are exercisable by attorney the said Minister may, if he so thinks proper, exercise such rights or powers by his attorney.

Powers of Minister for Finance in respect of shares held by him.

84. —(1) The Minister for Finance may hold for so long as he thinks fit the shares of the Company subscribed for by him under this Act and may as and when he thinks fit sell all or any of such shares.

(2) The net proceeds of every sale by the Minister for Finance of shares of the Company held by him shall be paid into or disposed of for the benefit of the Exchequer in such manner as the said Minister may direct.

Alteration of memorandum and articles of association of the Company.

85. —Notwithstanding anything contained in the Companies Acts, 1908 to 1924, no alteration in the memorandum of association or articles of association of the Company which is made while any share capital of the Company is held by the Minister for Finance or while any guarantee by the Government of Saorstát Eireann of any contract of re-insurance entered into by the Company is subsisting shall be valid or effectual unless made with the previous approval of the Minister for Finance given after consultation with the Minister.

Obligation of the Company to furnish balance sheets, etc.

86. —(1) The Company shall within six months after the end of every accounting year furnish to the Minister and to the Minister for Finance in respect of such accounting year the following documents, audited by the auditor of such company and drawn up in such manner as shall be approved by the Minister for Finance after consultation with the Minister, that is to say, a balance sheet and a profit and loss account, and also a separate revenue account in respect of each class of reinsurance business carried on by the Company.

(2) The Company shall on demand by the Minister or by the Minister for Finance furnish to the Minister making such demand such explanations as such Minister shall think proper to require in respect of any balance sheet, profit and loss account or revenue account furnished to him pursuant to this section.

(3) A copy of every balance sheet, profit and loss account and revenue account furnished to the Minister for Finance pursuant to this section shall be laid by the said Minister before each House of the Oireachtas within one month after such balance sheet, profit and loss account or revenue account (as the case may be) are so furnished to him.

(4) If the Company makes default in complying with any of the provisions of this section, the Company and every director, manager, and other officer of the Company, who knowingly and wilfully authorised or permitted such default, shall be guilty of an offence under this section and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof to a fine not exceeding five pounds for every day during which the default continues.

(5) The balance sheet, profit and loss account and revenue account which the Company is required by this section to furnish shall be in addition to and not in substitution for any other balance sheet, profit and loss account or revenue account which the Company may for the time being be required by law to prepare and furnish.

Inspection by Minister of books, etc., of the Company.

87. —(1) The Minister and every officer of the Minister authorised in writing by the Minister for the purpose may at all reasonable times enter any office of the Company and may there inspect all books, accounts, and documents kept by the Company at such office, and it shall be the duty of the Company to produce for the inspection of such officer on demand all such books, accounts, and documents together with all correspondence (including copies thereof where the originals are not available) reasonably demanded by such officer for the purpose of verifying any entry in any such book, account, or document or in any balance sheet or account furnished by the Company to the Minister under this Part of this Act.

(2) For the purposes of this section—

(a) inspection shall include taking copies of or making extracts from books, accounts and documents, and

(b) a demand for inspection shall be deemed to have been duly made by an officer of the Minister if such demand is made verbally at an office of the Company to any bookkeeper or other member of the clerical staff of the Company at such office.

Statistics and returns to be made by the Company.

88. —The company shall furnish to the Minister, at such times and in such form and manner as the Minister shall direct, such statistics and returns as the Minister may require.

Obligation to re-insure with the Company.

89. —(1) Every assurance company or syndicate which effects assurance business (excluding life assurance business and industrial assurance business, but including the renewal of any other assurance business, the original contract for which was entered into before the commencement of this Part of this Act) in Saorstát Eireann shall enter into an agreement with the Company whereby such assurance company or syndicate (as the case may be) agrees that, if and so far as it reinsures its assurance business (excluding and including as aforesaid), it will reinsure with the Company but subject to the qualification that the Company may, in the case of any particular risk, refuse to accept the reinsurance thereof unless such assurance company or syndicate (as the case may be) retains such portion of such risk as shall be satisfactory to the Company.

(2) Every agreement entered into by an assurance company or a syndicate with the Company in pursuance of the foregoing sub-section of this section shall provide that—

(a) whenever the amount of any risk undertaken by such assurance company or syndicate exceeds the amount which such assurance company or syndicate is required by such agreement to retain, the Company shall thereupon and without more become and be liable for so much (whether the whole or a portion) of the balance of such risk as the Company is bound by such agreement to accept, and

(b) the Company may, within three days after receiving from an assurance company or a syndicate advice of the amount of any particular risk reinsured (in whole or in part) by such assurance company or syndicate with the Company, give notice in writing to such assurance company or syndicate that the Company desires to be relieved of the whole or of a part (as the case may be) of the re-insurance of such risk, and whenever any such notice is so given, the Company shall, at the expiration of ten days from the receipt of such notice by such assurance company or syndicate, be relieved from liability for (as shall be specified in such notice) the whole or the said part of the re-insurance of such risk.

(3) When an assurance company or a syndicate which is required by this section to enter into an agreement with the Company has duly entered into such agreement, nothing in this section shall operate to restrict or control the re-insurance by such assurance company or syndicate of its assurance business save in so far and in such respects as such re-insurance is restricted or controlled by such agreement.

(4) Nothing in this section shall operate to restrict or control the re-insurance by an assurance company or a syndicate of any part of its assurance business in respect of which such assurance company or syndicate is not required by this section to enter into an agreement with the Company.

State guarantee of re-insurance contracts.

90. —(1) Every contract of re-insurance of assurance business entered into by the Company within a period of ten years after the date on which the Company commences business shall be guaranteed by the government of Saorstát Eireann, but no right of action shall lie, at the suit of the Company or of any assurance company, syndicate or other person, against the government of Saorstát Eireann under such guarantee or otherwise in respect of any liability on foot of such contract.

(2) Whenever the Company certifies to the Minister for Finance that any sum of money is required by the Company to meet any liability of the Company under any such contract of re-insurance as is mentioned in the next preceding sub-section of this section and that the Company is, by reason of the insufficiency of its funds or of any of its funds which are or is applicable to discharge such liability, unable to provide in whole or in part such sum, the said Minister shall advance to the Company out of the Central Fund or the growing produce thereof such sum as will, with the amount (if any) of the funds of the Company which are so applicable, discharge such liability.

(3) Such sums advanced to the Company by the Minister for Finance out of the Central Fund or the growing produce thereof under the next preceding sub-section of this section shall be advanced on such terms and conditions as the said Minister may determine at or subsequent to the date of such advance and shall be repaid to the Central Fund (with interest thereon at such rates as the said Minister shall appoint) by the Company in such amounts and at such times as the said Minister shall appoint.

(4) If and so far as any sums advanced to the Company by the Minister for Finance out of the Central Fund or the growing produce thereof are not repaid by the Company to the Central Fund, such sums shall be repaid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.