46.—(1) The Courts Service shall establish and maintain in the prescribed form and manner a register of every judgment reserved by the Supreme Court, F12[the Court of Appeal,] the High Court, the Circuit Court and the District Court in any civil proceedings to be known as the Register of Reserved Judgments (in this section referred to as “the register”).

(2) Such particulars as may be prescribed in respect of any proceedings in which judgment is reserved shall be entered in the register.

F13[(3) Subject to subsection (6), if judgment in the proceedings concerned is not delivered before the expiration of 2 months from the date on which it is reserved, the President of the Court shall, as soon as may be after—

(a) the said expiration, and

(b) the expiration of each subsequent period of 2 months (if judgment is not delivered first),

list the proceedings or cause them to be listed before the judge who reserved judgment therein and shall give notice in writing to the parties to the proceedings of each date on which the proceedings are listed in accordance with this section.

(3A) If, apart from this subsection, subsection (3) would operate to require the President of the Court to do anything referred to in that subsection during a period when the court is in vacation, then that subsection shall be construed as requiring that President to do that thing as soon as may be after the expiration of that period.

(4) Where proceedings are listed before a judge in accordance with subsection (3), the judge shall specify the date on which he or she proposes to deliver judgment in the proceedings.

(5) The date specified by a judge under subsection (4) shall, in relation to the proceedings concerned, be entered in the register and where the proceedings concerned have been listed more than once in accordance with subsection (1), there shall be entered in the register on each occasion on which they are so listed the date, for the time being, standing so specified.]

(6) Subsection (3) shall not apply if the judge who reserved judgment in the proceedings concerned dies, or if the judge concerned is ill, for the duration of his or her illness or in such other circumstances as may be prescribed.

(7) (a) The register or any part of it shall be kept at a place or places to be prescribed and shall be made available for inspection by any person on payment of such fee (if any) as may be prescribed and at such times as may be prescribed.

(b) A person may, on a request being made by him or her in the prescribed manner and on payment of such fee (if any) as may be prescribed, obtain a copy certified in such manner as may be prescribed of any entry or entries in the register.

(8) The functions of the Courts Service under this section shall be performed by the Chief Executive Officer of the Courts Service, but such of those functions as may be specified by him or her may be performed by such member or members of the staff of the Courts Service as may be authorised in that behalf by him or her.

(9) (a) The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform may by regulations provide for any matter referred to in this section as prescribed or to be prescribed.

(b) F14[…]

F13[(10) In this section references to a judge shall, in the case of a court constituted of more than one judge, be construed as references to the judge who, among the judges of which the court was constituted, ranks first in order of precedence in accordance with section 9 (inserted by section 9 of the Courts (No. 2) Act 1997) of the Courts of Justice Act 1924.]

(11) In this section—

“prescribed” means prescribed by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform by regulations under this section;

F15["President of the Court" means—

(a) in relation to the District Court, the President of the District Court,

(b) in relation to the Circuit Court, the President of the Circuit Court,

(c) in relation to the High Court, the President of the High Court,

F12[(cc) in relation to the Court of Appeal, the President of the Court of Appeal,]

(d) in relation to the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice;]

“reserved”, in relation to a judgment in court proceedings, means where a decision in the proceedings or the reasons for such decision or both are not announced by the court immediately upon the conclusion of the hearing of the proceedings but instead are postponed—

(a) without a date for such announcement being specified at the time, or

(b) for a period of not less than 14 days after such conclusion.