Agricultural Credit Act, 1947
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Lending powers of the Corporation. |
14.—(1) It shall be lawful for the Corporation so to alter its memorandum and articles of association that the same shall be so framed and expressed that the Corporation shall be entitled and authorised to lend or advance money upon such security, as the directors may deem proper, only to the persons and for the purposes hereinafter stated, that is to say:— | |
(a) to any person (being a farmer) for the purpose of— | ||
(i) constructing buildings on such person's farm, or | ||
(ii) making on such person's farm improvements of a permanent character calculated to increase or facilitate or conduce to the increase of the productivity thereof, or | ||
(iii) purchasing livestock, or | ||
(iv) purchasing agricultural machinery or implements, or | ||
(v) purchasing materials, manures, feeding stuffs, seeds or other requisites of agricultural production or marketing, or | ||
(vi) purchasing land which was immediately before the purchase owned by the Corporation or comprised in a security held by the Corporation for a loan or advance, or | ||
(vii) establishing, carrying on or extending such person's business, or | ||
(viii) paying off and discharging a debt or other liability for which such person may be liable and which was incurred (whether before or after the passing of this Act) by such person or by any other person wholly or mainly for a purpose for which a loan may lawfully be made by the Corporation, or | ||
(ix) paying off or discharging a debt incurred at any time for the purpose of purchasing land for agricultural purposes, or | ||
(x) paying off a mortgage, charge, burden, annuity or incumbrance on land or any debt where, in the opinion of the directors, the paying off of such mortgage, charge, burden, annuity or incumbrance on land or debt will facilitate the person whose lands are subject to the same or who may be liable for same in carrying on his business as a farmer or in effecting economies or in avoiding losses, or | ||
(xi) paying off a mortgage, charge, burden, annuity or incumbrance on land or a loan borrowed for the purpose of paying off a mortgage, charge, burden, annuity or incumbrance on land where, in the opinion of the directors, the making of an advance to such person, for the purpose of paying off such mortgage, charge, burden, annuity, incumbrance on land or loan, will facilitate the making and securing the repayment of an advance made or intended to be made by the Corporation to such person for any purpose for which the Corporation is authorised to make an advance, or | ||
(xii) providing such person with working capital; | ||
(b) to any individual (being a farmer) for the purpose of financing, carrying out or completing a settlement or arrangement of his family affairs or property; | ||
(c) to any person (being a farmer) for any purpose which, in the opinion of the directors, is related to agriculture; | ||
(d) to any person, engaged in or proposing to engage in an enterprise primarily designed for the service of farmers, for the purposes of establishing, carrying on or extending such enterprise; | ||
(e) to any person for the purpose of discharging the costs and expenses of borrowing money from the Corporation, of giving security to the Corporation therefor, or of perfecting such person's title to any land. | ||
(2) (a) The memorandum and articles of association of the Corporation shall also be so framed and expressed that the persons to whom and the purposes for which the Corporation shall be entitled and authorised to lend or advance money as stated in such memorandum and articles in pursuance of this section may be varied (whether by extension, restriction or otherwise) from time to time by the Minister and the Minister for Agriculture at their joint discretion by orders made by them jointly, but so that such persons and purposes shall not by any such order be extended so as to include— | ||
(i) any person who is not engaged or about to engage in agriculture or in a business or enterprise of an agricultural character or calculated directly or indirectly to benefit primarily persons engaged in agriculture, or | ||
(ii) any person to whom the Corporation is expressly forbidden by this section to make a loan or advance, or | ||
(iii) any purpose which is not directly or indirectly related to or concerned with agriculture. | ||
(b) Every order made by the Minister and the Minister for Agriculture under paragraph (a) of this subsection shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and unless either such House shall, within twenty-one days after the first day on which such House sits after such order is laid before it, pass a resolution annulling such order, such order shall come into operation at the expiration of twenty-one days from whichever of the following days is the later that is to say the first day on which Dáil Eireann sits after such order is laid before it or the first day on which Seanad Eireann sits after such order is laid before it. | ||
(3) (a) The Corporation shall not, for the purposes specified in paragraph (d) of subsection (1) of this section, make any loan or advance to— | ||
(i) any body corporate which, in the opinion of the directors, does not, as its principal business, engage in one or more of the following activities— | ||
(I) the giving of agricultural credit, | ||
(II) the production, processing or marketing of agricultural produce, | ||
(III) the sale or hire of agricultural machinery or implements, | ||
(IV) the production or supply of manures, feeding stuffs, seeds or other requisites of agricultural production or marketing, | ||
(V) the production of any one or more of the following, namely, water, power and light, for distribution mainly to farmers, | ||
(VI) the provision of works or services calculated, directly or indirectly, to benefit primarily persons engaged in agriculture, or | ||
(ii) any body corporate, which, in the opinion of the directors, carries on, as a substantial part of its business, the selling by retail of any goods which are neither produced by that body corporate or (if it is a co-operative society) its members nor are requisites of agricultural production or marketing; | ||
(b) where goods sold by a body corporate are mainly goods produced by that body corporate or (if it is a co-operative society) its members, any similar goods occasionally sold by that body corporate may, for the purposes of sub-paragraph (ii) of paragraph (a) of this subsection, be deemed to have been so produced although in fact produced by other persons and purchased by that body corporate from them. | ||
(4) The Corporation shall not make any loan or advance any money to a director. | ||
(5) (a) The Corporation shall not lend or advance any money to any person (other than a co-operative society) so as to cause the total amount of principal owing at any one time by such person to the Corporation to exceed ten thousand pounds. | ||
(b) In computing for the purposes of this subsection the total amount of principal owing at any one time by a person to the Corporation, no account need be taken of— | ||
(i) any contingent liability which such person may incur or have incurred towards the Corporation as a guarantor or surety, or | ||
(ii) any interest which may accrue due or may be unpaid on any loans or advances made by the Corporation to such person, or | ||
(iii) any moneys the repayment of which is secured by a mortgage or charge in favour of the Corporation on any real or personal property which has or may become vested subject to such mortgage or charge in such person as a beneficiary under a settlement or trust or under a will or an intestacy of any other person or as trustee of a will or settlement or as a successor in title or as an assignee or transferee of any other person, or | ||
(iv) any payments made by the Corporation for the purposes of protecting or preserving any security given to the Corporation by such person. | ||
(6) Notwithstanding anything contained in this section, the Corporation may invest moneys in its hands in any of the stocks, funds and securities which are for the time being authorised by law as investments for Post Office Savings Bank funds or in the purchase of or subscription for such securities as may from time to time be approved (either generally or particularly) by the Minister for the purposes of this subsection. | ||
(7) The first reference in subsection (1) of section 9 of the Principal Act to the restrictions imposed by the Principal Act shall be construed as a reference to this section. | ||
(8) Subsections (3), (4), (5), (6) and (7) of this section shall come into operation on the appointed day. |