I beg to move the Second Reading of this Bill. The object of the Bill is quite clearly stated in the long Title. It is entitled "An Act to make provision for the appointment of new trustees and for the exercise of powers by trustees in certain cases where difficulties in regard to such appointment or exercise are occasioned by reason of an office, title or dignity having ceased to exist." The Bill is an extremely technical one and I should like to explain to the House in anything but legal language exactly what it means and what it does.
There are a number of institutions in this country—mostly charitable institutions, but some of them educational—the trustees of which, or some of them, are not appointed because they are private individuals, but are appointed, or are acting as trustees, because they fill or did fill some particular office. In the course of time, a certain number of these offices have disappeared. A good many of them have disappeared before the Free State came into existence. A number of them have disappeared since the Free State was established, because the offices with which they were connected—many of them were connected with the Bench, such as the office of Lord Chief Baron—have disappeared. The result of that is that some of these institutions are left without trustees. I know of one charity in which there is an acting trustee. But though he is acting and doing his best for the charity, I doubt very much that he has any legal authority behind his acts. Be that as it may, a number of these institutions are now finding it practically impossible to administer their trusts, because their trustees were either persons holding offices which have now become extinct, or because their trustees had to be nominated or appointed by persons holding offices which have now become extinct. Under these circumstances, the only course open to these institutions, if a Bill such as this had not been introduced, would have been to proceed by Private Bill. A great many of these institutions are anything but rich, and Private Bill procedure is anything but cheap. After all, it would have been very unfair to put these institutions to the expense and trouble of promoting Private Bills when the cause of their trouble and the necessity for the Private Bills arose entirely from causes outside their control. Hence this Bill.
The Bill is being introduced in this House because of the state of business in the Dáil. It was to have been introduced by the Minister for Justice in the other House, but owing to the state of business there and the desirability of getting this Bill through, if possible, before the recess, it was thought better that it should be introduced in this House. Accordingly, I am now moving the Second Reading. Shortly, the Bill operates by an order of the court. Under the Trustee Act of 1893 the court has the power to appoint trustees where there is nobody able or willing to appoint trustees. The court has got the additional power of vesting trust property without conveyance or any expense of that kind in the trustees it appoints to act alone or with existing trustees.
This Bill is framed on the basis that the court will exercise the power which it had under that old Act in doing what is sought to be done under the Bill. Section 3 of the Bill says that the power which the court has under the old Trustee Act to appoint new trustees is to extend to the case where a vacancy in the trust is caused by the fact that the trustee, or trustees, who acted held office, or offices, which have now become extinct. The Bill gives the court power to appoint new trustees instead of what I might describe as these official trustees. Another case had to be provided for. In some of these institutions the trustees were not holders of offices which have become extinct; but persons who held offices which have become extinct had the power of nominating or appointing the trustees of these institutions. Accordingly, Section 4 gives power to the court, by order, either to appoint the trustees itself or to nominate some person holding an office similar to the office which has become extinct to exercise the power which the former holder of the office exercised in this regard. Section 5 applies to one or two cases to which the importance of this Bill is very great. There are one or two institutions with considerable trust property which are unable to deal with that property either by way of sale or leasing, although they have a power of sale or leasing, because the consent of certain persons is required, those persons holding offices, at the time the trust was created, which have since become extinct. Those cases must also be provided for. Section 5 provides for those cases in much the same way as for the other cases. It gives the court power to give consent itself to the exercise of the power of sale or leasing, or whatever the trust power is, or to nominate some persons holding an office, if possible, similar to that held by the person or persons having the power previously, to give consent to the exercise of the power where such consent is necessary. The court can only appoint a trustee or nominate the holder of an office to appoint a trustee, or nominate the holder of an office to consent to the exercise of powers under trust by a trustee if the person so nominated consents to act. The Bill does not propose to force that kind of duty on the holder of an existing office. This is an extremely technical Bill. It is difficult for anyone to understand it who is not acquainted with the old trustee statute law, but I think I have said sufficient to give the House an idea of what the Bill means.
