PART II

Dissolution of County Donegal Railways Joint Committee and of Strabane and Letterkenny Railway Company

5. —In this Part—

“the Act of 1903” means the Strabane Raphoe and Convoy Railway Act, 1903;

“the Act of 1904” means the Strabane Raphoe and Convoy Railway (Extension to Letterkenny) Act, 1904;

“the Act of 1906” means the Great Northern (Ireland) and Midland Railways Act, 1906;

“the Joint Committee” means the County Donegal Railways Joint Committee;

“the Strabane Company” means the Strabane and Letterkenny Railway Company;

“the transfer date” means the day appointed by order under section 6.

6. —The Minister may by order appoint a day to be the transfer date for the purposes of this Part.

7. —(1) The Agreement of 1967 is hereby confirmed.

(2) In this section “Agreement of 1967” means the Agreement made on the 31st day of May, 1967, between the British Railways Board and the Board, a copy whereof is set out in the Second Schedule to this Act.

8. —(1) On the transfer date the assets of the Joint Committee and of the Strabane Company, including all lands and other property and all powers, rights, licences and privileges held or enjoyed in connection therewith or appertaining to the Joint Committee or the Strabane Company shall, by virtue of this section, be transferred to and stand vested in the Board.

(2) The Joint Committee and the Strabane Company shall, at the request of the Board, execute all such instruments and do all such acts as may be necessary to enable the Board to have effectively transferred into its name any assets vested in the Board by this section or any assets outside the State of the Joint Committee or the Strabane Company.

9. —(1) Subject to this Part—

(i) the Board shall, to the exclusion of the Joint Committee and the Strabane Company (as the case may be), be subject to all liabilities to which the Joint Committee and the Strabane Company were respectively subject immediately before the transfer date;

(ii) all contracts, deeds, bonds, agreements and other instruments and all working arrangements subsisting immediately before the transfer date and affecting the Joint Committee or the Strabane Company shall be of as full force and effect against or in favour of the Board and may be enforced as fully and effectually as if, instead of the Joint Committee or the Strabane Company (as the case may be), the Board had been a party thereto.

(2) Subject to sections 13 and 14, a proceeding (including an arbitration) or cause of action pending or existing immediately before the transfer date by or against the Joint Committee or the Strabane Company shall not abate, be discontinued or in any way be prejudicially affected by reason of anything in this Part, but may be continued and enforced by or against the Board as it might have been by or against the Joint Committee or the Strabane Company (as the case may be) if this Part had not been passed, but not further or otherwise.

10. —Notwithstanding any other provision of this Part, the Board shall not be under any obligation relating to the provision of road transport services imposed by statute on the Joint Committee and any such obligation shall cease on the transfer date.

11. —(1) Subject to subsection (2), every person who, immediately before the transfer date, was an officer or servant of the Joint Committee shall on that date become an officer or servant of the Board on the same terms and conditions of service.

(2) (a) Any such officer or servant who, immediately before the transfer date, was a member of the Railway Clearing System Superannuation Fund shall continue to be an officer or servant of the Joint Committee and shall, on and after that date, be seconded for duty to the Board.

(b) The obligations, whether obtaining legally or by customary practice, of the Joint Committee under the Railway Clearing System Superannuation Fund in respect of every such officer or servant shall continue to be binding on the Joint Committee and, after the dissolution of the Joint Committee, these obligations, or such corresponding obligations as may arise under any superannuation fund established in lieu of the Railway Clearing System Superannuation Fund for the benefit of such officers or servants, shall bind the Board.

(c) All moneys from time to time required by the Joint Committee to discharge its obligations in respect of any such officer or servant shall on demand be paid to it by the Board.

(d) All the rights and obligations conferred or imposed on the Joint Committee by the contract of service or by law in respect of an officer or servant so seconded shall, save as provided by paragraph (b), be rights and obligations of the Board.

(e) On the dissolution of the Joint Committee every seconded officer or servant then in its service shall become an officer or servant of the Board on the same terms and conditions of service.

(3) (a) The obligations, whether obtaining legally or by customary practice, of the Joint Committee under the Railway Clearing System Superannuation Fund in respect of every person who, immediately before the transfer date, is entitled to benefit under that Fund shall continue to be binding on the Joint Committee and, after the dissolution of the Joint Committee, these obligations, or such corresponding obligations as may arise under any superannuation fund established in lieu of that Fund for the benefit of such persons, shall bind the Board.

(b) All moneys from time to time required by the Joint Committee to discharge its obligations in respect of any such person shall on demand be paid to it by the Board.

(4) Where, by virtue of this section, an officer or servant of the Joint Committee becomes an officer or servant of the Board or is seconded for duty to the Board, he shall, notwithstanding anything in the Redundancy Payments Act, 1967 , be deemed not to have been dismissed by reason of redundancy within the meaning of that Act.

12. —(1) When the Joint Committee has complied with any request made to it by the Board for the purpose of securing that the ownership of any property or assets or any right is effectively transferred to the Board and has ascertained that the Board does not desire to make any further request, the Joint Committee shall notify the Minister.

(2) If the Minister is satisfied (whether any such notice has been given to him or not) that any request so made has been complied with and that there are no further requirements to be complied with, he shall make an order that there is no reason for the continued existence of the Joint Committee and shall cause the order to be published in Iris Oifigiúil and upon the publication thereof the Joint Committee shall be dissolved and section 28 of the Act of 1906, by which the Joint Committee was incorporated, shall cease to have effect.

(3) During the period beginning on the transfer date and ending on the dissolution of the Joint Committee, the statutory provisions and other instruments relating to it shall remain in force in relation thereto as if this Part had not been passed, so far as the powers conferred thereby are required for the remaining purposes of the Joint Committee.

(4) All expenses reasonably and properly incurred by the Joint Committee (including remuneration of its members) after the transfer date for the purpose of winding up its affairs shall be defrayed by the Board, and the Board shall make available to the Joint Committee such facilities for the examination of and the making of extracts from or copies of books, accounts and documents surrendered to the Board as the Joint Committee may reasonably require.

13. —(1) The Strabane Company shall, by virtue of this section, be dissolved on the transfer date and section 5 of the Act of 1903, by which it was incorporated, shall cease to have effect.

(2) The Board shall not be subject to any liability in respect of any stocks or shares of the Strabane Company or in respect of the payment of interest or dividends on such stocks or shares and no cause of action shall lie against the Board in respect of any such stocks or shares or in respect of the payment of any such interest or dividends.

14. —(1) The Board shall, not later than two months from the transfer date, pay to any person who, immediately before that date, was the registered holder of guaranteed shares in the Strabane Company, a sum of money equal in amount to the aggregate of the following—

(a) such amount as, if invested on the date of issue in the Government security last issued before the transfer date for subscription in the State and redeemable not less than 12 years after the date of issue, would produce annually in gross interest an amount equal to £4 for every £100 of guaranteed shares in the Strabane Company held by such person and so in proportion for amounts of such guaranteed shares greater or less than £100, and

(b) an amount calculated on the amount of the said guaranteed shares held by such person at the rate of 4 per cent. per annum in respect of the period from the 1st day of January, 1961, to the transfer date.

(2) The moneys required by the Board for the purposes of subsection (1) shall be paid to it by the Miniser for Finance.

(3) A payment made under this section to a registered holder of guaranteed shares in the Strabane Company shall be in full settlement of any claim by such person in respect of either principal or dividends or both principal and dividends.

(4) Save as provided in this section, compensation shall not be payable to any person by reason of the dissolution of the Strabane Company effected by section 13 (1).

(5) In this section “guaranteed” means guaranteed under section 41 of the Act of 1903 or section 38 of the Act of 1904.

15. —(1) A person who receives a sum under section 14 shall hold the sum in the same right and on the same trusts and subject to the same powers, privileges, charges and liabilities as those in, on or subject to which he held the shares and, where the shares were held pursuant to any provision of a deed, will, disposition or other instrument, that instrument shall have the like effect as if it expressly authorised the investment of the sum so received in any investment authorised under section 1 of the Trustee Act, 1893.

(2) If for any reason the Board is unable to make payment of any sum under section 14 to the person entitled thereto, that sum may be paid into the High Court (or, if the sum does not exceed five thousand pounds, into the Circuit Court) and shall be applied and dealt with in accordance with the provisions of the Lands Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845, with respect to purchase money or compensation coming to parties having limited interests in land compulsorily acquired or prevented from treating or not making title thereto, and those provisions shall have effect accordingly; and for the purpose of this section the Circuit Court shall have all the jurisdiction exercisable by the High Court under that Act.

(3) If any money is payable by the Board under section 14 to a person who is a minor or a person of unsound mind, the receipt of the guardian or committee of his estate shall be a sufficient discharge to the Board.

16. —The money required by the Minister for Finance to meet the payments required to be made by him under section 14 shall be paid out of the Central Fund or the growing produce thereof.

17. —Every notice served by or on the Joint Committee or the Strabane Company before the transfer date, the effect or term of which has not ceased or expired before that date shall, so far as it is not inconsistent with this Part, continue in force and have effect thereafter as if it were a notice served by or on the Board on the date on which it was actually served and as if the functions or property to which the said notice relates had on the same date already vested in the Board.

18. —(1) The Joint Committee and the Strabane Company shall, on and after the transfer date, continue to be liable under the Income Tax Acts to prepare and deliver any statement, return or particulars required for the purposes of those Acts for any year of assessment ending on or before the 5th day of April next following that date.

(2) Assessment to income tax for any year of assessment ending on or before the 5th day of April next following the transfer date may be made on the Joint Committee and the Strabane Company on or after that date, and income tax in respect of any such assessment so made, which shall have become final and conclusive, shall, when it becomes due and payable, be deemed to have become due and payable before that date.

(3) For the purposes of this section, the secretary (or other officer performing the duties of secretary) of the Board shall be deemed to be secretary (or other officer performing the duties of secretary) of the Joint Committee or of the Strabane Company.

(4) The Board shall be and is hereby empowered to deduct out of the emoluments of any person holding an office or employment of profit under the Board any income tax charged on the Joint Committee or the Strabane Company in respect of any office or employment of profit held by such person under the Joint Committee or the Strabane Company.

(5) For the purposes of this section, but not further or otherwise, the Joint Committee and the Strabane Company shall be deemed to continue in existence on and after the respective dates of dissolution under this Part.

19. —Section 12 of the Finance Act, 1895, shall not operate so as to require the Board to deliver to the Revenue Commissioners a copy of this Act or to pay any stamp duty under that section on any copy of this Act.

20. —(1) All bye-laws made or deemed to have been made by the Joint Committee and in force immediately before the transfer date shall, on and after that date, continue in force in relation to the undertaking vested in the Board by this Part and be deemed to have been made under section 22 of the Transport Act, 1950 , and shall be capable of being amended or revoked by bye-laws under that section.

(2) All rules and regulations made by the Joint Committee and in force immediately before the transfer date shall, on and after that date, continue in force until revoked, altered or superseded.