Irish Land Act 1903

13 Provision with respect to sporting rights and minerals

(1) Where at the time of sale of any land to the Land Commission or to tenants or others the vendor has, subject to the provisions of the [43 & 44 Vict. c. 47.] Ground Game Act, 1880, sporting rights, exclusive of the tenant, those rights may by agreement between the vendor and purchaser be either conveyed to the purchaser or be expressly reserved to the vendor, and in the absence of such agreement those rights shall be vested in the Land Commission, and the Land Commission may deal with the same, subject to regulations to be made by the Lord Lieutenant.

(2) The expression "sporting rights" includes any right of hunting, shooting, fishing, and taking game or fish on any land, and the expression "game" has the same meaning as in section five of the Act of 1881, and also includes deer.

(3) On the sale under the Land Purchase Acts of any land by the Land Commission, or of any land comprised in an estate by the owner of the estate, there shall be reserved, in the prescribed manner, to the Commission the exclusive right of mining and taking minerals, and digging and searching for minerals, on or under that land, and the said right shall be disposed of by the Commission in manner hereafter to be provided by Parliament:

Provided that this subsection shall not apply—

(a) to any demesne or other land resold in pursuance of section three of this Act; or

(b) to any such right which constitutes a superior interest, or which is vested in the Crown ; or

(c) to any stone, gravel, sand, or clay:

Provided also, that where any such right reserved to the Land Commission under this subsection is at any time hereafter let, leased, sold, or demised by them, the vendor (or the person who would have been entitled thereto if the lands had not been sold) shall be entitled to receive twenty-five per cent. of any rent, purchase-money, or other net profit received by the Land Commission in respect of same, unless the Land Commission shall have purchased from the person entitled to such percentage his interest therein, and the Land Commission may purchase such interest at anytime on such terms as may be sanctioned by the Treasury.

(4) Where any right mentioned in this section is so reserved, there shall be attached thereto a right to enter upon the land in respect of which the first-mentioned right may be exercised, and to authorise any persons so to do; but any person entering upon land in pursuance of this subsection shall be liable to make reasonable amends and satisfaction for any damage done or occasioned thereby.

(5) Any person authorised by or in. pursuance of, the last preceding subsection to enter upon land, for the purpose of exercising a sporting right shall have the some authority to prosecute for trespass in pursuit of game or fish as if he were the occupier of that land.