PART II.

The Minister and the Appeal Tribunal.

5. —(1) This Part of this, Act shall come into operation on such day as the Minister shall by order appoint to be the appointed day for the purposes of this Part of this Act.

(2) In this Part of this Act the expression “the appointed day” means the day appointed by the Minister under this section to be the appointed day for the purposes of this Part of this Act.

6. —(1) The following matters shall be excepted matters for the purposes of this section and the expression “excepted matters” shall in this section be construed accordingly, that is to say:—

(a) the determination of the persons from whom land is to be acquired or resumed;

(b) the determination of the actual lands to be acquired or resumed;

(c) the determination of the price to be paid for land so acquired or resumed;

(d) the determination of the persons to be selected as allottees of untenanted land;

(e) the determination of the price at which land is to be sold to any such allottee;

(f) the determination of the new holding which is to be provided for a tenant or proprietor whose holding has been acquired by the Land Commission;

(g) the determination whether or not a holding has been used by the tenant thereof as an ordinary farm in accordance with proper methods of husbandry.

(2) On and after the appointed day, the Land Commission, in the exercise and performance of the powers and duties for the time being vested in it by law (including this Act), and the Lay Commissioners, in the exercise and performance of the powers and duties for the time being specifically vested in them by law (including this Act), shall, save in relation to excepted matters, act under and in accordance with the directions, whether general or particular, of the Minister, and the Minister shall have and may exercise, if and so far as he shall think proper, full and unrestricted power of regulating and controlling every and any exercise or performance by the Land Commission or the Lay Commissioners (as the case may be) of any such power or duty not relating to an excepted matter and also power of reserving to himself rights of approval and disapproval or of reconsideration, revision and confirmation of every or any act of the Land Commission or the Lay Commissioners not relating to an excepted matter.

(3) All powers and duties for the time being vested by law (including this Act) in the Land Commission or the Lay Commissioners in relation to an excepted matter shall, on and after the appointed day be exercised and performed in all respects as if this section had not been enacted, save that—

(a) any appeal which may lie by law (including this Act) from the determination of an excepted matter shall lie to the Appeal Tribunal, and

(b) the Minister may, if and so far as he thinks proper, arrange by reference to the class or classes of case or the county or counties in which the land concerned is situate the distribution amongst the Lay Commissioners of their work in relation to the excepted matters, but not so as to allocate any particular case or land to any particular Lay Commissioner.

(4) Nothing in this section shall apply to the Judicial Commissioner or to the Appeal Tribunal or operate to give the Minister any power or control of any kind over or in relation to the exercise of his functions by the Judicial Commissioner or their functions by the Appeal Tribunal.

7. —(1) On and after the appointed day the Judicial Commissioner and two Lay Commissioners nominated for the purpose by the Executive Council shall constitute a tribunal, to be known and in this Act referred to as the Appeal Tribunal, to hear and determine all such applications, matters, and things as are by this Act or shall hereafter be authorised to be brought before it.

(2) Every Lay Commissioner appointed to be a member of the Appeal Tribunal shall hold his office as such member by the same tenure as a Judge of the Circuit Court holds his office as such Judge.

(3) Whenever the Executive Council is satisfied that a member of the Appeal Tribunal other than the Judicial Commissioner is temporarily unable on account of illness, absence on vacation, or other sufficient reason to discharge his duties as such member, the Executive Council may appoint another Lay Commissioner to be a member of the Appeal Tribunal during such temporary inability, and every Lay Commissioner so appointed shall while his said appointment continues hold office as such member by the same tenure as a Judge of the Circuit Court holds his office as such Judge.

(4) The Judicial Commissioner shall preside at every sitting of the Appeal Tribunal.

(5) Every question before the Appeal Tribunal shall be determined by a majority of the members of the tribunal, save that, on any question which, in the opinion of the Judicial Commissioner with the concurrence of one or both of the other members of the tribunal, is a question of law, the opinion of the Judicial Commissioner shall prevail.

(6) An appeal shall lie to the Supreme Court from every determination by the Appeal Tribunal that a question before it is or is not a question of law, and for that purpose whenever the Appeal Tribunal determines that a question before it is or is not a question of law, the order made by the Appeal Tribunal on the said question so before it shall state the fact of such determination and whether the said question so before it was determined to be or was determined not to be a question of law.

(7) The Minister may, with the concurrence of a majority of a committee consisting of the Judicial Commissioner, the Secretary of the Land Commission, a Lay Commissioner appointed for the purpose by the Minister, a practising barrister nominated by the Council of the Bar of Saorstát Eireann, and the President of the Incorporated Law Society, make rules regulating and prescribing the practice and procedure of the Appeal Tribunal.

8. —(1) Whenever, on or after the appointed day, an order is made or a thing is done, in exercise of a power conferred by this Act (other than this Part thereof) or any Act passed after this Act and an unlimited right of appeal or a limited right of appeal to the Appeal Tribunal from an exercise of such power is given by this Act (other than this Part thereof) or any Act passed after this Act, any person aggrieved by the making of such order or the doing of such thing may apply to the Appeal Tribunal for relief from such exercise of such power but limited, in the case of a limited right of appeal, to such relief as is within such limited right.

(2) The Appeal Tribunal shall hear and determine every application made to it under this section and may give such relief or make such other order thereon as the Appeal Tribunal shall consider to be just and equitable.

9. —(1) On and after the appointed day no appeal to the Judicial Commissioner shall lie from an order of the Land Commission or of the Land Commissioners other than the Judicial Commissioner but, in lieu thereof, wherever any such appeal would have lain on or after the appointed day if this section had not been enacted the like appeal shall, in cases not otherwise provided for by this Part of this Act, lie to the Appeal Tribunal.

(2) Every appeal to the Judicial Commissioner which is brought before the appointed day and the hearing of which is not begun before the appointed day shall be deemed to be an appeal to the Appeal Tribunal and shall be heard and determined accordingly.

(3) In this section the expression “order of the Land Commission” includes an order of the Land Commission under section 3 of the Forestry Act, 1928 (No. 34 of 1928), and a decision of the Land Commission under section 4 of the Mines and Minerals Act, 1931 (No. 54 of 1931).

10. —Whenever the Appeal Tribunal makes an order from which an appeal would have lain if this Part of this, Act had not been enacted and such order had been made by the Judicial Commissioner, the like appeal shall (save as is otherwise provided by this Act) lie from such order of the Appeal Tribunal as would have lain as aforesaid.

11. —On any application by the Land Commission for or in connection with the resumption of a holding, the powers of the Court under section 5 of the Land Law (Ireland) Act, 1881, as amended, by subsequent enactments (including this Act) shall be exercised by the Appeal Tribunal, and the decision of the Appeal Tribunal on such application shall be final.