Vol. 560 No. 1
931 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the steps he proposes to address the predicament of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 6 in being denied shares in the flotation of a company (details supplied) following the death of their spouse; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1682/03]
Under the provisions of the Building Societies Act 1989 and the approved scheme for the conversion of Irish Permanent, which took place in 1994, only the first named person on a joint account who had held a qualifying investment share account continuously from 23 February 1992 was entitled to free shares.
The Central Bank Act 1997 amended these provisions to ensure that certain joint account holders would not be excluded from free shares in the event of demutualisation. On the basis of advice received from the Attorney General it was not considered possible to apply this amendment with retrospective effect. Further amendments have been made in the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2002 to ensure that all members of a joint account would have equal rights to any free shares arising from any future demutualisation.
