Government of Ireland Act 1920

9 Reserved matters

(1) The Royal Irish Constabulary and the Dublin Metropolitan Police and the management and control of those forces and the administration of the Acts relating thereto, including appointments remuneration and removal of magistrates thereunder, shall be reserved matters until such date, not being later than the expiration of three years after the appointed day, as His Majesty in Council may determine, and on the date so determined the public services in connection with the administration of those Acts and the management and control of those forces shall, by virtue of this Act, be transferred from the Government of the United Kingdom to the Government of Southern Ireland as respects Southern Ireland and to the Government of Northern Ireland as respects Northern Ireland, and shall then cease to be reserved services and become Irish services:

Provided that, if the date of Irish union occurs before the said services are so transferred then, unless otherwise provided by the constituent Acts, those services shall as soon as may be after the date of Irish union be transferred from the Government of the United Kingdom to the Government of Ireland.

(2) The following matters, namely,—

(a) the postal service;

(b) the Post Office Savings Bank and Trustee Savings Banks;

(c) designs for stamps, whether for postal or revenue purposes;

(d) the registration of deeds; and

(e) the Public Record Office of Ireland;

shall be reserved matters until the date of Irish union, and thereafter if the constituent Acts so provide, and on that date if there should be no provision to the contrary in the constituent Acts, or at such later date (if any) as may be prescribed by those Acts, as the case may be, the public services in connection with, the administration of those matters, except so far as they are matters with respect to which the Parliament of Ireland have not power to make laws, shall, by virtue of this Act, be transferred from the Government of the United Kingdom to the Government of Ireland, and shall then cease to be reserved services and become Irish services:

Provided that—

(a) if before the date of Irish union the Parliaments of Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland by identical Acts make provision for the transfer of any of the said services to the Council of Ireland or otherwise for the exercise of the powers relating thereto by the Parliaments and Governments of Southern Ireland and Northern Ireland jointly, such services shall be transferred in accordance with those Acts, and shall, on such transfer, cease to be reserved services ; and

(b) nothing in this subsection shall prevent the Parliament or Government of Southern Ireland or Northern Ireland establishing a Public Record Office of Southern Ireland or Northern Ireland, as the case may be, for the reception and preservation of public records appertaining to Southern Ireland or Northern Ireland which otherwise would he deposited in the Public Record Office of Ireland, and, if any such office is so established, provision may be made by the Lord Lieutenant for the removal to that office of such probates, letters of administration, or other testamentary records granted or coming into existence not earlier than twenty years prior to the appointed day as, in his opinion, properly belong to the part of Ireland in which the office is situated and can conveniently be removed to that office.

(3) The general subject-matter of the Acts relating to land purchase in Ireland shall be a reserved matter unless and until otherwise provided by any Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom relating to land purchase in Ireland, passed in the present or any future session of that Parliament:

Provided that this reservation shall not include—

(a) the powers and duties of the Congested Districts Board for Ireland, other than the power of that Board to require advances to be made to them under section seventy-two of the [3 Edw. 7. c. 37.] Irish Land Act, 1903; and

(b) the powers and duties of the Irish Land Commission and the Commissioners of Public "Works in Ireland with respect to the collection and recovery of purchase annuities, and, except to such extent as may be provided by Irish transfer orders, the powers of the Irish Land Commission with respect to holdings subject to purchase annuities and the apportionment and consolidation of such annuities.

(4) On any transfer under or by virtue of this Act of any reserved matter, the general provisions of this Act (so far as applicable) and the provisions of this Act as to existing Irish officers and existing pensions shall apply with respect to the transfer, with the substitution of the date of the transfer for the appointed day or the date of the passing of this Act.