Éamon Ó Cuív calls for bill on unclaimed bank safes and artefacts

Cahirleach, Taoiseach am garawni o'n bilis o'n le Plea, aga tasulam ng nglachfarniol eis ar yndaric eim. Bila cwymsewch o taon ois creed ym fein gwy'l tarfa mŵr a baintleis. Bunni o'n ciaad fanch i'n eirin i siachtag ochto ddog, aga zo chwyn, tao dainio co'rrodi lúchfara i daisge ym mancanu. Ta cwydwa taisge na busge dartolam aga lewad siar, aga cwyl eisig einiad ca eislofa iad. I siaracht eisio le tŷrt fwui ailemaach ca eisleisb na busge, nw marr la einiad, brannu cairta anto aga zidu cwynnail ar baan eisio staad. So, cedyni caemni tōtta broesiais. Nché caemna tlór gan la busge i raitoch. Darae caem, na na busge i Cangal cu phadagos ois feidu le daini gwrlobiad. and they came in to it, because they didn't have the words that the people had changed the word for. However, they were also in the tables and into the two places. They were in the centre of the city at the Temple and in the museum. And they are there, and they have to work on the Lennon-Ätellgian, that is not the same, but the same thing. It's also the same, the same things that we have to work on the Dánle Náseúnte, to North Museum, to Lárdá Náseúnte, to the same thing. We are to go through to work on the Lennon-Ätellgian, and then we will live on the Lennon-Ätellgian Lennon-Ätellgian. The title is the title to the title of the title. I have been at the title title for the title, but the title of the title title is on the title title. I would like to say that one title title. I am delighted that this bill has been selected for second stage debate tonight and I hope that it will be passed on second stage and proceed to committee. It is a very comprehensive bill with six parts and 30 sections and has been five years in gestation. I would like to thank my committees on the Joint Erectus Committee on Social Protection, Rural and Community Development and the Islands for their interest in this bill and for their support in the work I was doing. I would particularly like to thank the staff in the Office of Parliamentary Legal Advisors Neil McKenna and Owen Garvey for all the detailed work they have done in looking at the legislation that exists already and in assisting in drafting this bill. That said, any errors or omissions I take full responsibility for. I would also like to thank the person who does not wish to be named who suggested to me the first time that this bill be developed. I would think it is worthwhile looking at exactly how long the banks have existed and boxes going into the banks have existed. The first bank, the Bank of Ireland, was established by the Act of Parliament in 1782. AIB, in its original form, dates back to the founding of the Provincial Bank in 1825. I understand that both have had safekeeping facilities for their clients from the outset. Today both institutions and other banks retain all the property that has been abandoned over the years. I think it is important to stress again and again that the property is not the bank's property. They are only safekeepers of the property. The property rightfully belongs to the people who put it there. Obviously there is nobody alive now that put it there in 1784. The vast majority of this property was deposited in a sealed state. In other words people came in with trunks, with envelopes, with chests, with safes, every kind of thing. I think some people have a vision of neat rows of boxes with keys on them that you put it into. But in a lot of cases they actually brought in, as I said, the receptacle sealed that these deposits are in, and as a result the contents are unknown. I understand that for a variety of reasons over the years that some boxes had to be opened, and that a sample of it, the things that were found were cash, weapons and other war memorabilia, antiques, paintings, jewellery, title deeds, wills and other papers. I even heard the suggestion that there could be a billion euros worth, but I do not think this is about money, this is about artefacts, this is about history, this is about things being made available. I think that that is what we are talking about. It is not so much the actual monetary value, but it has been suggested to me that the monetary value alone would be quite significant. Now we have to be very careful, and this is what the bill is about, and how you would do this. So the first thing that will be done is to create a register of property deposits in banks. The second thing is to identify the safekeeping property deposits where the records are sufficient to identify a living or beneficial owner, in other words the inheritor, starting with the oldest deposits first, and obviously you would expect it would be the hardest one to link with the present living person. Failing that, then you have to advertise with the information available, and that is very comprehensive, what information is available, and effectively it is everything the banks know. In the event of no owner coming forward, then the boxes are open to see what is inside. The Director of the National Museum will then examine any unclaimed property, and they can designate somebody to do it on their behalf, and decide whether it should be retained by it by certain other bodies, for example the National Gallery or the National Library or so on, and put it on display. Now, in the event of something going on display and somebody finding out it was theirs, they could claim it back, and I will come to that in a minute. The bill also provides for the transfer of unclaimed funds to the dormant accounts. All safe deposits will be recorded in chronological order back to the beginning of the banks in the 18th century, and no safe deposit held by a bank for less than 80 years will be opened. 80 years, when you put a number in a bill, you always have to have a justification and a rationale, but at the same time it is always slightly arbitrary, and 80 years was decided to be appropriate, as very few people under 20 years of age lodge safe deposit boxes in banks. Therefore, if 80 years were cut off by adding 20 to that, the minimum age people would be before you had opened them would be over 100 years of age, and that is at a very minimum. Now, the bill is broken into six parts. Part 1, preliminary and general, this part includes the purpose of the bill, the short title, interpretation section, expenses and regulations and offences under the bill. Part 2 provides for the registration, notification and examination of historical property deposits. This part imposes certain obligations on institutions in relation to the registration of information relating to deposit of property, the identification and notification of depositors of unclaimed property, and the examination of unclaimed property. Part 3 provides for retention by the state of unclaimed property. This part makes provision for the notification of the director of the National Museum that unclaimed property is held by an institution, for the examination of unclaimed property by the director, and for the retention of certain items of property that are of historical, archaeological or artistic importance by the state. This part also provides for claims for return of property that are retained by the state, and in certain circumstances it also allows for the acquisition by the state of certain property in which in respect of which such a claim for return is made. Part 4 provides for notification of other persons for the performance of statutory functions, this would be the various agencies and so on. Part 5 provides for the disposal of unclaimed property and the transfer of unclaimed monies to the Doordormand Accounts Fund, and claims for the repayment of unclaimed monies. Part 6 provides for various miscellaneous matters, including compliance with the provisions of the bill, and the powers of the central bank for the purposes of supervising compliance with the provision of the bill. The schedule to the bill provides for the phased periods during which certain historic unclaimed property must be examined for the purposes of section 9. That is very useful and we have put inner limits and outer limits, because one of the problems we often find is that things run a lot longer than we as legislators had intended they would. I would be very interested to get the feedback from the House. I would hope that the fact that there are very few of us here is a sign that everybody agrees with this and that there is no contest or nobody objecting to any aspect of it. I hope that this bill can now go to committee stage where all of the hard work can be examined in detail and where the Minister will be able to come in and go through it line by line. I am very interested in that. I have a great job but I have to do my job and I have to do my job in the process, and I have to do my job in the process. I have a great job of doing this and I am very interested in drawing. and I was a great student. But I was very happy to have the opportunity to have a great opportunity. And I was happy to have a great opportunity to have a great opportunity. I think there are an awful lot of people who would be very curious to find out what people were hiding back in 1784 or 1885 or even in 1800 or even 1825. You might remember at the year of the millennium, there was this habit of putting the time capsule in the ground and putting lots of things that were relevant to the year 2000 and saying in 50 or 100 years time people can dig these up and find out what these time capsules were holding. These safe deposit boxes, in my view, are likely to be an absolutely fascinating time capsule into a world that we do not inhabit. But what is the real world for the people who lived at that time? So I recommend this bill to the House and I hope that the Minister will be equally positive. Thank you very much.