The Minister for Industry and Commerce is engaged in the Dáil, and he has asked me to present this Bill to the House in the hope that it will get a Second Reading. In the main it is purely a formal Bill. It was provided by Section 4 of the Railways Act, 1933, that such of the company's capital stocks as were on the 1st December, 1932, securities in which trustees are authorised by the Trustee Act, 1893, to invest trust moneys, or in which funds in any court might, under the rules of such court, be invested, should continue until 31st December, 1935, to be so available for the investment of trust or court moneys or funds, whether the company did or did not pay on its ordinary stock a dividend at the rate of 3 per cent. per annum or any dividend as required by the Trustee Act and the rules of court, respectively.
Sub-section (2) of Section 4 provided that for the purposes of the application on and after the 1st of January, 1936, of the provisions of the Trustee Act, 1893, or of the rules of court, relating to securities, in which trust or court funds might be invested, the company shall be deemed to have paid the dividends at the rate of 1 per cent. per annum on its ordinary stock in respect of every financial year of the company which ended after 30th November, 1932, and before the 1st January, 1936, and for which the company in fact paid on its ordinary stock either no dividend or a dividend at a rate less than 1 per cent. per annum.
Administrative difficulties operated to postpone the date for the coming into effective operation of the Road Transport Act, 1933, and this, together with other difficulties inseparable from the reorganisation, contributed to defer the realisation of the position originally contemplated, with the result that it becomes necessary to extend by two years the period during which the trustee status of the company's capital stock should be maintained. It is not anticipated that it will be necessary to seek any further extension of this period.