PART I.

Preliminary and General

1. —(1) This Act may be cited as the Central Bank Act, 1971.

(2) The Currency and Central Bank Acts, 1927 to 1964, and this Act shall be construed together as one Act and may be cited together as the Currency and Central Bank Acts, 1927 to 1971.

(3) Save as otherwise specifically provided thereby, this Act shall come into operation on such day as the Minister appoints by order under this section.

2. —In this Act—

“the Act of 1927” means the Currency Act, 1927 ;

“the Act of 1942” means the Central Bank Act, 1942 ;

“the Bank” means the Central Bank of Ireland;

“banker's licence” means a licence issued under section 47 of the Act of 1942, and a reference in any statute or instrument under statute to a banker's licence shall be construed as including a reference to a licence;

“banking business” means business which consists of—

(a) the business of accepting deposits payable on demand or on notice or at a fixed or determinable future date, but excluding deposits with a trader from persons employed by him in his trading business or from his customers in the normal course of his trading business and deposits or instalments in respect of the letting or selling of goods under a hire-purchase agreement or a credit-sale agreement, or

(b) the business aforesaid and any other business normally carried on by a bank,

and “banking” and words cognate thereto shall be construed accordingly;

“company” means a company incorporated in or outside the State and includes the Bank of Ireland;

“the Court” means the High Court;

“general fund”, “gold bullion”, “issue”, “legal tender note” and “legal tender note fund” have the same meanings as in the Act of 1927;

“holder”, in relation to a licence, means the person to whom a licence is granted;

“investment trust company” means a company whose main business consists of the investment of its funds in securities;

“licence” means a licence for the time being in force granted under section 9 of this Act;

“the Minister” means the Minister for Finance;

“securities” means—

(a) shares in the share capital of any body corporate or stock of any body corporate or debentures, debenture stock or bonds of any body corporate, whether constituting a charge on the assets of the body or not, or rights or interests (described whether as units or otherwise) in any such shares, stock, debentures, debenture stock or bonds,

(b) securities of the Government or the government of any country or territory outside the State, or

(c) rights (whether actual or contingent) in respect of money lent to, or deposited with, any industrial and provident society, friendly society or building society,

and includes rights or interests (described whether as units or otherwise) which may be acquired under any unit trust scheme under which all property for the time being subject to any trust or other arrangement created or made in pursuance of the scheme consists of such securities as are mentioned in paragraph (a), (b) or (c) of this definition;

“unit trust scheme” means any arrangements made for the purpose, or having the effect, of providing facilities for the participation by the public, as beneficiaries under a trust or otherwise, in profits or income arising from the acquisition, holding, management or disposal of securities or any other property whatsoever and a reference in this Act to a manager under a unit trust scheme shall be construed as a reference to the person in whom is vested the powers of management relating to property for the time being subject to any trust or other arrangement created or made in pursuance of the scheme.

3. —The expenses incurred by the Minister in the administration of this Act shall be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.

4. —Every order and regulation made by the Minister or the Bank under this Act shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the order or regulation is passed by either such House within the next twenty-one days on which that House has sat after the order or regulation is laid before it, the order or regulation shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

5. —The enactments mentioned in the second column of the Schedule to this Act are hereby repealed to the extent specified in the third column of that Schedule.

6. —A banker's licence in force immediately before the commencement of this section shall continue in force during the period from such commencement—

(a) to the date of the grant of a licence to the holder of the banker's licence,

(b) to the 31st day of December immediately following such commencement, or

(c) if the banker's licence is revoked, to the date of the revocation,

whichever shall first occur, and the provisions of this Act shall apply during the period aforesaid in relation to the holder and the banker's licence as if the holder were the holder of a licence and the banker's licence were a licence.