PART II.

The Circuit Court.

34. —(1) There shall be established in and for every county and every county borough an office attached to the Circuit Court and styled the Circuit Court Office.

(2) The Minister may at any time and for so long as he thinks proper amalgamate any two or more counties or any county borough and one or more counties for the purposes of the Circuit Court, and while any such amalgamation continues there shall be only one circuit court office in and for such amalgamated counties or county borough and county or counties.

(3) The Minister may at any time divide any county into two or more parts for the purposes of the Circuit Court and whenever any county is so divided a separate circuit court office shall be established in and for every such part of such county.

35. —(1) There shall be attached to the Circuit Court so many County Registrars as the Minister, with the sanction of the Minister for Finance, shall from time to time direct.

(2) Every county registrar shall be appointed by the Executive Council and shall hold office at the pleasure of the Executive Council.

(3) No person shall be appointed to be a county registrar unless at the time of his appointment he is either—

(a) a solicitor of not less than eight years standing who is then actually practising or has previously practised for not less than eight years, or

(b) a Clerk of the Crown and Peace, or

(c) a person who has been a Clerk of the Crown and Peace or a county registrar.

(4) For the purposes of paragraph (a) of the foregoing sub-section, service as a Justice of the District Court shall in the case of a Justice of the District Court who was admitted as a solicitor before he was appointed to be such Justice, be deemed to be practice as a solicitor.

(5) Subject to the person appointed thereto being in good health at the time of appointment, the office of county registrar shall be a pensionable office within the Superannuation Acts for the time being in force and there may be granted either to a county registrar on retirement or to his legal personal representative on death such superannuation and other allowances or gratuities as might under the Superannuation Acts for the time being in force have been granted had such county registrar been appointed to the permanent Civil Service of Saorstát Eireann with a certificate from the Civil Service Commissioners.

(6) Every county registrar shall retire on attaining the age of sixty-five years, but such age of retirement may, in the case of any particular county registrar, be extended by the Minister with the concurrence of the Minister for Finance to any age not exceeding seventy years.

36. —(1) Every county registrar appointed under this Act shall be assigned to such circuit court office as the Minister shall from time to time direct.

(2) Every county registrar shall be known and is in this Act referred to as the county registrar for the county, county borough, or other area served by the circuit court office to which he is for the time being assigned.

(3) All references in this Act to a county registrar in relation to a circuit court office shall be construed as references to the county registrar for the time being assigned under this section to such office and all references in this Act to a county registrar in relation to a county, county borough, or other area shall be construed as references to the county registrar for the time being assigned to the circuit court office for that area.

37. —Every circuit court office shall be under the control and management of the county registrar and there shall be transacted in every circuit court office all such business as is from time to time directed by statute or rule of court to be transacted therein and (unless and until otherwise directed by statute or rule of court) also all other business of the Circuit Court in the county, county borough, or other area served by such office except such business as is required by law to be transacted by or before the Circuit Judge.

38. —(1) Every county registrar shall have and exercise such powers and authorities and shall perform and fulfil such duties and functions as shall be from time to time conferred or imposed on him by statute or rule of court and in particular shall perform and fulfil the duties and have and exercise the powers and authorities expressly imposed or conferred on him by this Act and (unless and until otherwise provided by statute or rule of court) shall also, save as is otherwise provided by this Act perform and fulfil all the duties and have and exercise all the powers and authorities which immediately before the commencement of this Part of this Act were by law imposed on or vested in the clerk of the crown and peace or the registrar of a civil bill court or, where a local bankruptcy court formerly existed, the registrar, or any other officer of that court except the official assignee.

(2) Rules of court made under section 66 of the Courts of Justice Act, 1924 (No. 10 of 1924), may provide for the hearing and determination (subject or not subject to an appeal to the Circuit Judge) by the county registrar of all or any class or classes of interlocutory applications and unopposed final applications in or in relation to suits or matters in the Circuit Court as well as the taking or making of all or any class or classes of accounts and inquiries in such suits or matters.

(3) The county registrar of the county, county borough, or other area in which the Central Criminal Court is for the time being sitting shall act as registrar ot that court and perform and fulfil such duties and functions in relation to that court as shall be assigned to him by rules of court.

39.— (1) All expenses, allowances, and fees heretofore payable or receivable under the Electoral Act, 1923 (No. 12 of 1923), the Local Government Electors Registration Act, 1924 (No. 7 of 1924) and the Juries Acts, 1871 to 1924, respectively to or by the Clerk of the Crown and Peace (whether as registration officer or otherwise) shall be payable to and receivable by the county registrar in the same manner in all respects as the said expenses, allowances, and fees were heretofore payable to or receivable by the Clerk of the Crown and Peace.

(2) The amounts of the said expenses, allowances and fees shall be calculated in accordance with the scales for the time being in force for the purposes of such calculation under the said Acts mentioned in the foregoing sub-section respectively, and for the purpose of such scales all such expenses, allowances, and fees as were heretofore actually incurred by the Clerk of the Crown and Peace shall be deemed to be actually incurred by the county registrar although in fact not so incurred.

(3) Save as is hereinafter mentioned every county registrar shall surrender to the Exchequer so much of the expenses, allowances, and fees paid to and received by him by virtue of this section as is not required by him to meet disbursements and expenses payable or incurred by him under any of the said Acts mentioned in the foregoing sub-section and not payable or paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.

(4) Notwithstanding the provisions of the foregoing sub-section, the fees and other sums mentioned in sub-section (4) of section 12 of the Electoral Act, 1923 , shall be accounted for and paid by the county registrar in accordance with that sub-section and no portion of such fees or sums shall be surrendered to the Exchequer under the foregoing sub-section.

40. —(1) In the event of the temporary absence or the temporary incapacity through illness of any county registrar or in the event of the office of county registrar for any circuit court office being vacant the Minister may appoint a deputy to execute the office of such county registrar during such absence, incapacity, or vacancy, but unless and until the Minister appoints such deputy the office of such county registrar shall (save as is hereinafter provided) be executed during such absence, incapacity, or vacancy by the senior officer in the circuit court office.

(2) A deputy appointed under this section shall, while his appointment continues, have and exercise all the powers and authorities and shall perform and fulfil all the duties and functions of the county registrar whose deputy he is.

(3) Rules of court may provide that specified powers, authorities, duties, and functions of a county registrar shall not be exercised or performed by the senior officer under this section, and where rules of court so provide the powers, authorities, duties, and functions so specified shall not be exercised or performed by the senior officer under this section.

(4) Except in the case of the temporary incapacity of a county registrar through illness no office shall be executed by a deputy appointed under this section for any period or periods exceeding in all three months in any year.

(5) No person shall be appointed under this section to be a deputy for a county registrar unless he possesses the qualifications prescribed by this Act for persons appointed to be county registrars.

(6) This section shall not operate to authorise the senior officer in a circuit court office to exercise the powers or authorities or perform the duties or functions of the county registrar as registration officer under the Electoral Act, 1923 (No. 12 of 1923) or any Act amending or extending that Act, and section 10 of that Act shall apply to the exercise and performance of those powers, authorities, duties and functions during any temporary absence or temporary incapacity through illness of the county registrar or any vacancy in the office of county registrar until a deputy is appointed under this section but not thereafter.

(7) After the powers, authorities, duties, and functions of any under-sheriff have become transferred under this Act to a county registrar, the powers, authorities, duties and functions of such under-sheriff as returning officer under the Electoral Act, 1923 (No. 12 of 1923) shall not be exercisable by the senior officer under this section, and in lieu thereof whenever such county registrar is temporarily absent or incapacitated through illness or his office is vacant the Minister for Local Government and Public Health may if he so thinks fit appoint a fit and proper person to exercise and perform those powers, authorities, duties and functions during such absence, incapacity, or vacancy until a deputy is appointed by the Minister for Justice under this section.

41. —(1) The Minister may by order prescribe the places at which and the post office savings banks and other banks in which money hereafter paid into the circuit court in any proceedings or heretofore paid under section 39 of the County Officers and Courts (Ireland) Act, 1877, into the former county court or into the circuit court shall be deposited in each circuit and may by the same or any other order make in respect of each circuit rules and regulations in respect of such deposits, and may by such rules and regulations make such provision as may appear to him to be necessary for the transfer of money heretofore paid into the former county court or into the circuit court as aforesaid to the bank or banks and into the names prescribed by such order for money hereafter paid into the circuit court.

(2) No order shall be made under this section without the concurrence of the judge of the circuit court assigned at the date of the order to the circuit to which the order relates.

(3) No order made under this section shall authorise the payment out otherwise than on an order of a judge of the circuit court of any money deposited under this section.

42. —There shall be employed in every circuit court office established under this Act such and so many officers, clerks, messengers, and servants as the Minister shall, with the sanction of the Minister for Finance, from time to time determine and all such officers, clerks, messengers, and servants shall hold office on such terms and conditions as the Minister for Finance shall prescribe.

43. —(1) In addition to the persons employed under this Act in circuit court offices there may be attached to the circuit court such and so many officers and servants as the Minister shall, with the sanction of the Minister for Finance from time to time determine and all such officers and servants shall hold office on such terms and conditions as the Minister for Finance shall prescribe.

(2) Every officer and servant attached to the circuit court shall be assigned by the Minister to a particular circuit and any such officer or servant may with his own consent be transferred from one circuit to another circuit and every such officer and servant shall perform and fulfil in the circuit to which he is for the time being assigned such duties and functions in relation to the circuit court as the Minister shall from time to time prescribe.

(3) In addition to the officers and servants mentioned in the foregoing sub-sections of this section there may be attached to any judge of the circuit court by direction of the Minister and with the sanction of the Minister for Finance one servant to perform such duties in relation to such judge as the Minister shall prescribe, and every such servant shall be appointed by the Minister and shall hold office on such terms and conditions as the Minister shall, with the sanction of the Minister for Finance determine, and the Civil Service Regulation Act, 1924 (No. 5 of 1924) shall not apply to the situation of any such servant.

(4) The Minister for Finance may out of moneys to be provided by the Oireachtas pay to any judge of the circuit court to whom a servant is not attached under the foregoing sub-section an allowance of such amount as the said Minister shall determine in lieu of such servant.

44. —(1) There shall be attached to every circuit court office such and so many summons-servers as the county registrar, with the sanction of the Minister and (as regards numbers) of the Minister for Finance, shall think proper.

(2) Every such summons-server shall be appointed by the county registrar with and subject to the approval of the Minister and shall hold office at the will of and may be removed by the Minister and shall be paid out of moneys to be provided by the Oireachtas such salaries as the Minister shall, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, direct.

(3) Whenever there is in the opinion of the county registrar reason to believe that any such summons-server has misconducted himself or displayed gross incapacity in the performance of his duties, the county registrar may suspend such summons-server from the performance of his duties for any period or periods not exceeding altogether one month pending the decision of the Minister on the matter.

(4) Every such summons-server shall be and is hereby declared to be competent to serve within the area served by the circuit court office to which he is attached any writ, summons, process, notice or other document issued by or from any court.

45. —Nothing in this Act shall apply to the office of official assignee attached to a local bankruptcy court established under the Local Bankruptcy (Ireland) Act, 1888, before the passing of the Courts of Justice Act, 1924 (No. 10 of 1924) save that every such official assignee and his staff (if any) shall henceforth be attached to the circuit court and that sub-sections (1) and (2) of section 43 (which relate to the staff attached to the circuit court) of this Act shall apply to the post or situation of each such official assignee and of each member of his staff (if any) on and from the occurrence of the next vacancy in each such post or situation.