9. —(1) (a) Subject to paragraph (b), the Government may, at the request of a Minister of the Government in whom functions in relation to a State authority are vested, by order delegate to the Agency the management of any claims, or classes of claims, against such an authority.

(b) An order under paragraph (a) may exempt any class of claims against all or any of the State authorities from the delegation effected by the order.

(c) A delegation under paragraph (a) may relate to claims made before the commencement of this Part or the commencement of the order concerned as well as to claims made after the commencement of the order concerned irrespective of whether the latter claims relate to acts, omissions or other matters occurring before or after the commencement of the order concerned or before the commencement of this Part.

(2) (a) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), whenever an order under subsection (1) is in force, the Agency shall, if and in so far as the order so declares, have the following functions:

(i) advising the Minister, whenever he or she so requests, in relation to the management of delegated claims and counterclaims and matters connected therewith,

(ii) advising a relevant Minister of the Government, whenever he or she so requests, of the status and progress of the management of any delegated claim, or class of delegated claims, against, or the management of any counterclaim made by, such Minister of the Government or any other State authority other than the State and the Attorney General,

(iii) advising the Taoiseach, whenever he or she so requests, of the status and progress of the management of any delegated claim, or class of delegated claims, against, or the management of any counterclaim made by, the State or the Attorney General,

(iv) advising a State authority other than the State, a Minister of the Government or the Attorney General, whenever such an authority so requests, of the status and progress of the management of any delegated claim, or class of delegated claims, against, or the management of any counterclaim made by, such an authority.

(b) An order under subsection (1) may contain such ancillary and incidental provisions as the Government consider necessary or expedient for the purposes of the delegation effected by the order.

(3) Subject to subsection (4), the following provisions shall apply in relation to a delegation under this section and a declaration under subsection (2)(a), that is to say:

(a) the Government may at any time by order—

(i) revoke the delegation in whole or in part, or

(ii) provide that all or any of the functions to which the declaration relates shall cease to be performed by the Agency, and, upon the commencement of the order, the functions shall cease to be performed by the Agency,

(b) subject to paragraph (a), the delegation shall operate, so long as it continues in force, to confer on and vest in the Agency the function delegated by the delegation and the declaration shall operate, so long as it continues in force, to confer on and vest in the Agency each function specified in subsection (2)(a),

(c) the function delegated by the delegation or to which the declaration aforesaid relates shall be performed by the Agency subject to any conditions or restrictions specified in the order concerned under this section,

(d) any obligation or liability undertaken by the Agency consequent upon the performance by the Agency of a function to which the delegation or declaration relates shall be of the same force and effect as if the obligation or liability had been undertaken by the State authority concerned,

(e) a function of a State authority delegated by the delegation or to which the declaration relates shall, notwithstanding the delegation or declaration, as the case may be, continue to be vested in the State authority but shall be so vested concurrently with the Agency and so be capable of being performed by either the State authority concerned or the Agency, but shall be performed by the State authority concerned only if, and to the extent that, a direction under subsection (4) applies to it, and

(f) the delegation or declaration shall not remove or derogate from the responsibility of any Minister of the Government to Dáil Éireann or as a member of the Government for the performance of functions of that Minister of the Government thereby delegated or to which the declaration relates.

(4) The Minister may—

(a) at the request of the Taoiseach in the case of delegated claims against the State or the Attorney General, and

(b) at the request of a relevant Minister of the Government and after consultation with the Attorney General in the case of all other delegated claims,

if he or she is of opinion that it is in the interests of the State to do so, give the Agency a direction (which it shall comply with) not to begin, or to discontinue, managing any delegated claim specified in the direction and, following such a direction, the claim concerned shall not be managed or further managed by the Agency.

(5) The Government may by order amend or revoke an order under this section including an order under this subsection.