No. 21/1973:

DAIRY PRODUCE (MISCELLANEOUS PROVISION) ACT, 1973

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

1 Definitions.

2 Transfer day.

3 Transfer of property of Board to Society.

4 Supplementary provisions as to certain property of Society.

5 Dissolution of Board.

6 Guarantee of loans to Society.

7 Superannuation of officers and servants of Society.

8 1973 not to be nomination year for purposes of Act of 1961.

9 Preservation of contracts of service entered into by Board.

10 Section 32 (4) of Act of 1961 not to apply to certain grants.

11 Repeals.

12 Short title.

[4th August, 1973]

AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE TRANSFER OF THE PROPERTY OF AN BORD BAINNE TO AN BORD BAINNE CO-OPERATIVE LIMITED., TO PROVIDE FOR THE DISSOLUTION OF AN BORD BAINNE, TO ENABLE THE MINISTER FOR AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES TO GUARANTEE LOANS TO THAT CO-OPERATIVE, TO REQUIRE THAT THAT CO-OPERATIVE INCLUDES CERTAIN PROVISIONS IN A SUPERANNUATION OR PENSIONS SCHEME TO BE PREPARED BY IT, TO REPEAL CERTAIN PROVISIONS OF THE DAIRY PRODUCE MARKETING ACT, 1961 , AND TO PROVIDE FOR OTHER MATTERS CONNECTED WITH THE MATTERS AFORESAID.

[4th August, 1973]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:

1.—In this Act—

"the Act of 1961" means the Dairy Produce Marketing Act, 1961 ;

"the Board" means An Bord Bainne;

"the Minister" means the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries;

"the Society" means An Bord Bainne Co-operative Limited;

"specified assets" has the meaning assigned to it by section 4 of this Act;

"the transfer day" means the day appointed pursuant to section 2 of this Act by the Minister.

2.—The Minister may by order appoint a day to be the transfer day for the purposes of this Act.

3.—(1) On and from the transfer day the property of the Board shall, without any conveyance or assignment, but subject where necessary to transfer in the books of any bank, corporation or company, vest in the Society for all the estate, term or interest for which immediately before the transfer day it was held by the Board together with all rights and liabilities enjoyed or incurred in connection therewith by the Board.

(2) All property transferred by subsection (1) of this section which immediately before the transfer day was standing or registered in the books of any bank, corporation or company or was entered in any register kept in pursuance of any enactment shall, on request made by or on behalf of the Society, be transferred into the name of the Society.

(3) All debts and liabilities duly incurred by the Board and which, immediately before the transfer day, were owing and unpaid or were so incurred and were undischarged by the Board shall, on the transfer day, become and be the debts and liabilities of the Society and shall be paid or discharged by and may be recovered from and enforced against the Society accordingly.

(4) Any bond, guarantee or other security of a continuing character made or given by the Board to another person or by any person to the Board and in force immediately before the transfer day and every contract (express or implied) made between the Board and another person, not being an officer or servant of the Board, and not fully executed and completed before the transfer day shall continue in force on and after the transfer day, but shall be construed and have effect as if the Society were substituted therein for the Board and every such bond, guarantee, security or contract shall be enforceable accordingly by or against the Society.

(5) In every action, suit, prosecution or other legal proceeding which was pending immediately before the transfer day and to which the Board is a party, the Society shall be substituted as a party in place of the Board and the proceedings shall continue accordingly.

(6) Section 12 of the Finance Act, 1895, shall not apply to the vesting in the Society of the property or rights transferred by this section.

4.—(1) The property vested in the Society by section 3 of this Act and any moneys representing the proceeds of sale of any such property or of investments made by the Society pursuant to subsection (4) of this section (which property and moneys are referred to in this Act as the specified assets) shall be used by the Society only in accordance with this section.

(2) The Society may use the specified assets for the orderly marketing and distribution of dairy products for the benefit of the dairy industry.

(3) The Society may use any of the specified assets to secure moneys borrowed by the Society for the acquisition of dairy products and to secure a guarantee under section 6 of this Act.

(4) Any of the specified assets which, in the opinion of the Society, are for the time being not immediately required in connection with the purpose mentioned in subsection (2) of this section may be invested by the Society in securities in which trustees are for the time being authorised by law to invest trust funds.

(5) The Society may, with, and only with, the consent of the Minister, either dispose of or use for a purpose or in a manner not being a purpose or manner mentioned in subsection (2), (3) or (4) of this section any of the specified assets.

(6) All dividends and interest received by the Society in respect of specified assets invested pursuant to subsection (4) of this section may be used by the Society for the purpose mentioned in subsection (2) of this section.

(7) In the event of the winding up or dissolution of the Society, the specified assets shall be used or disposed of for the benefit of the dairy industry in such manner as the Minister, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, may direct.

5.—(1) The Minister may by order dissolve the Board.

(2) An order under this section shall not come into operation before the transfer day.

(3) An order under this section may include such consequential, supplementary and transitional provisions as the Minister thinks fit.

6.—(1) The Minister may, if he so thinks fit and with the consent of the Minister for Finance, guarantee a loan to the Society.

(2) Whenever the Minister guarantees a loan under this section, he may guarantee in such form and manner and on such terms and conditions as the Minister for Finance may sanction, the due repayment by the Society of the principal of the loan or the payment of interest on the loan or both the repayment of such principal and the payment of such interest.

(3) The Minister shall not so exercise the powers conferred by subsections (1) and (2) of this section that the amount, or the aggregate amount, of principal which he may at any one time be liable to pay on foot of any guarantee or guarantees under these subsections for the time being in force, together with the amount of principal (if any) which the Minister has previously paid on foot of any such guarantees and has not been repaid by the Society exceeds £20, 000, 000.

(4) Where the Minister guarantees a loan under this section, there shall be paid to the Minister by the Society in respect of the guarantee such fee (if any) as the Minister with the concurrence of the Minister for Finance determines.

(5) Moneys obtained by the Society on foot of a loan guaranteed under this section shall be used solely by the Society for the acquisition in the course of its ordinary business of dairy produce.

(6) Where a guarantee under this section is or has been given, the Society shall, if the Minister with the concurrence of the Minister for Finance so requires, give to him such security, including any or all of the specified assets, as may be specified in the requisition for the purpose of securing to the Minister the repayment of any moneys which he may be liable to pay or has paid under the guarantee.

(7) The Minister shall, as soon as may be after the expiration of every financial year, lay before each House of the Oireachtas a statement setting out with respect to each guarantee under this section given during that year or given at any time before, and in force at, the commencement of that year—

( a ) particulars of the guarantee,

( b ) in case any payment has been made by the Minister under the guarantee before the end of that year, the amount of the payment and the amount (if any) repaid to the Minister on foot of the payment,

( c ) the amount of principal covered by the guarantee which was outstanding at the end of that year.

(8) Every guarantee under this section shall, unless it is sooner revoked or extinguished, expire on the 31st day of December, 1977.

(9) Moneys paid by the Minister under a guarantee under this section shall be repaid to the Minister (with, if the Minister for Finance so requires, interest thereon at such rates as the Minister for Finance appoints) by the Society at such times and in such instalments as the Minister for Finance appoints and, in default of repayment as aforesaid and without prejudice to any other method of recovery, shall be recoverable as a simple contract debt in any court of competent jurisdiction.

(10) Moneys repaid by the Society to the Minister, or recovered from the Society by the Minister, under this section shall be paid into or disposed of for the benefit of the Exchequer.

(11) All moneys from time to time required by the Minister to meet sums which may become payable by him under this section shall be advanced out of the Central Fund or the growing produce thereof.

7.—(1) As soon as may be after the passing of this Act, the Society shall, subject to subsection (2) of this section, prepare a scheme for the granting of pensions, gratuities and other allowances on retirement or death to or in respect of such officers or servants of the Society as it may think fit.

(2) The Society shall include in a superannuation or pensions scheme prepared by it the following provisions namely:

( a ) provisions for the reckoning as pensionable service for the purposes of the scheme of any service which was reckonable in computing benefit pursuant to a scheme of the Board,

( b ) provisions whereby every person who transferred to the service of the Society on the 1st day of February, 1973, and who immediately before that day was entitled to benefit under a scheme of the Board and every person who, though employed by the Board was not so employed immediately before the said 1st day of February, is entitled to benefit under any such scheme shall be entitled to corresponding benefit under the requirements of the scheme prepared by the Society on terms not less favourable than those under the scheme of the Board.

( c ) provisions whereby any person who was on the 1st day of February, 1973, by reason of the membership, or entitlement to benefit, of another person under a scheme of the Board, entitled to benefit thereunder, shall be entitled to a corresponding benefit under the scheme prepared by the Society on terms not less favourable than those under the scheme of the Board, and

( d ) provisions whereby an officer or servant of the Board who was entitled to reckon service as a pensionable officer or pensionable servant of a local authority for the purposes of a scheme of the Board and who on the 1st day of February, 1973, transferred from the service of the Board to the service of the Society, shall be entitled to reckon that service for the purposes of the scheme prepared pursuant to this section.

(3) The Minister may, at the request of the Board and the Society, by order make such provisions as he thinks appropriate for transferring the whole or any part of the property of any scheme of the Board to a corresponding pension or superannuation scheme of the Society and vesting it in the trustees or other persons charged with the administration of such corresponding scheme and for winding-up, dissolving, terminating or modifying any such scheme of the Board, and where any such provisions are so made, the scheme of the Society shall have effect in accordance therewith, the scheme of the Board to which they apply being wound up, dissolved, terminated or modified, as the case may be.

(4) Where service mentioned in subsection (2) (d) of this section is reckoned on the grant of any benefit by the Society, the local authority concerned may make the appropriate refunds to the Society.

(5) In any case where section 4 of the Superannuation and Pensions Act, 1963 , was applied in relation to a person transferred or appointed to or from employment with the Board, the provisions of that section shall apply in relation to the person as if the transfer or appointment had been to or from employment with the Society, and for the purpose of applying the provisions of the said section 4 pursuant to this subsection, the Society shall be regarded as having been at the time of the transfer or appointment an approved organisation within the meaning of the said section 4.

(6) Transfer of service or employment from the Board to the Society shall not, of itself, give rise to any claim or benefit under a scheme prepared pursuant to this section.

(7) Any benefit payable under a scheme of the Board to the personal representative (in his capacity as personal representative) of any deceased officer or servant and remaining unpaid on the transfer day shall become and be payable on that day by the Society or, if the Society so provides in a superannuation or pensions scheme, under that scheme.

(8) Without prejudice to the generality of section 3 (3) of this Act, every agreement pursuant to section 4 of the Superannuation and Pensions Act, 1963 , made with the Board and in force immediately before the transfer day shall continue in force and on and from that day shall be construed and have effect as if the Society were substituted therein for the Board.

(9) In this section—

"benefit" means any pension, annuity, lump sum, gratuity or other like payment given pursuant to a superannuation or pensions scheme on retirement or payable after retirement in respect of past service or on or in connection with death during service or after retirement and includes entitlement to a return of contributions;

"local authority", "pensionable officer" and "pensionable servant" have the meanings assigned to them respectively by section 2 of the Local Government (Superannuation) Act, 1956 ;

"pension or superannuation scheme of the Society" means a scheme, arrangement or fund established in connection with the business of the Society for the provision of benefit for the officers or servants (as the case may be) of the Society or their dependants on their retirement or death;

"scheme of the Board" means a scheme for the granting of pensions, gratuities and other allowances on retirement by or in respect of officers or servants of the Board and prepared and carried out by the Board pursuant to section 27 of the Act of 1961.

8.—Notwithstanding section 7 (1) of the Act of 1961, 1973 shall not be a nomination year for the purposes of that Act.

9.—Every contract of service, express or implied between the Board and any person being an officer or servant of the Board and which was in force immediately before the 1st day of February, 1973, shall continue in force and shall be deemed always to have continued in force, but shall be construed and have effect on and after that day as if the name of the Society were substituted therein for the name of the Board and every such contract shall be enforceable accordingly by or against the Society.

10.—Subsection (4) of section 32 of the Act of 1961 shall not apply and shall be deemed never to have applied to any grant made to the Board after the 31st day of March, 1972.

11.—(1) The Act of 1961 (in so far as it has not been repealed by the European Communities (An Bord Bainne) Regulations, 1973 ( S.I. No. 32 of 1973 )), other than sections 2, 57, 58, 60 (2) and 61 to 65 thereof, is hereby repealed.

(2) In section 1 of the Dairy Produce (Amendment) Act, 1941 , "An Bord Bainne or" (inserted therein by section 59 of the Act of 1961) is hereby repealed.

(3) Subsection (1) of this section shall come into operation on such day or days as, by order or orders made by the Minister under this section, may be fixed therefor either generally or in relation to any particular provision of the Act of 1961 and different days may, be so fixed in relation to different such provisions.

(4) Subsection (2) of this section shall come into operation on the day on which the Board is dissolved by the Minister pursuant to section 5 of this Act.

12.—This Act may be cited as the Dairy Produce (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1973.