57. (1) Section 124 of the Principal Act is amended—

(a) by substituting “District Court” for “Circuit Court” in each place it occurs,

(b) by inserting the following subsections after subsection (7):

“(7A) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (2), where the determination order that is the subject of an application under this section includes provision for the return of a deposit pursuant to section 148B(b) and the Board has paid the deposit in accordance with section 148B(b), the court shall have regard to that payment when making an order under this section including an ancillary or other order referred to in subsection (7).

(7B) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (2), where the determination order that is the subject of an application under this section includes provision for the return of a deposit pursuant to section 148B(b) and the Board has not, before the application under this section, paid the deposit in accordance with section 148B(b), the court shall have regard to such provision for the return of a deposit when making an order under this section including an ancillary or other order referred to in subsection (7).”,

(c) in subsection (9), by substituting “District Court district” for “circuit”, and

(d) by inserting the following subsection after subsection (9):

“(10) The monetary limit for the time being standing specified of the jurisdiction of the District Court shall not apply in respect of proceedings brought or heard, as the case may be, in the District Court under this section on or after the commencement of section 57 of the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2015 and, the monetary limit which shall apply in respect of those proceedings, shall be the monetary limit for the time being standing specified of the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court.”.

(2) Subject to subsection (3), the amendments effected by paragraphs (a) and (b) of subsection (1) shall not affect any proceedings brought under section 124 of the Principal Act before this section comes into operation.

(3) Where, before this section comes into operation, proceedings have been brought under section 124 of the Principal Act but not yet heard either in whole or in part by the Circuit Court, the Circuit Court may—

(a) on application to it in that behalf, and

(b) with the consent of each party to the proceedings,

remit those proceedings to the District Court.

(4) For the purposes of subsection (3), proceedings shall not be taken to have been heard in part by reason of the Circuit Court having heard an interlocutory application or any procedural application or motion relating to the proceedings.