1. All affidavits shall be made before the County Registrar, or a Commissioner to administer oaths for the High Court, or a practising solicitor or, where the person making an affidavit resides outside Ireland, or is for the time being thereout, before any person duly authorised to administer oaths in the country where such person ordinarily resides or is.

2. All affidavits shall be written or printed book-wise; shall be expressed in the first person of the deponent; shall be drawn up in numbered paragraphs; and shall be entitled in the action or matter in which they are sworn.

3. All affidavits shall state the deponent’s occupation and place of residence, and if the deponent shall be over eighteen years of age he shall so state, and if under such age shall state his exact age. All affidavits shall be confined to such facts as the deponent is able to prove of his own knowledge, and shall state his means of knowledge thereof, except on interlocutory motions, on which statements by the deponent as to his belief, with the grounds thereof, may be admitted.

4. No affidavit shall be sufficient if sworn before the Solicitor acting for the party on whose behalf the affidavit is to be used, or before the partner, agent, correspondent or clerk of such Solicitor, or before the party himself.

5. Every person taking an affidavit, a declaration, or the acknowledgment of any deed or recognizance—

(a) shall express the date upon which and the place where he takes such affidavit, declaration or acknowledgment; otherwise the same shall not be held authentic nor be admitted to be filed without the leave of the Judge;

(b) shall certify in the jurat either that he himself knows the deponent, or knows some person named in the jurat who certifies his knowledge of the deponent;

(c) shall certify therein, when such affidavit, declaration, acknowledgment or recognizance is sworn or made by any person who appears to be illiterate or blind, that such affidavit, declaration, acknowledgment or recognizance was read in his presence to the deponent, that the deponent appeared to understand it, and that the deponent made his signature or mark in his presence. No such affidavit, declaration, acknowledgment or recognizance shall be used in evidence in the absence of this certificate unless the Judge is otherwise satisfied that the same was read over to, and appeared to be understood by the deponent.

6. There shall be on every affidavit a footnote showing on whose behalf it is filed, and the person by whom it is filed and his address, and no affidavit shall be filed or used without such note unless the Judge shall otherwise direct.

7. No affidavit having in the jurat or body thereof any interlineation, alteration, or erasure, shall without leave of the Judge be filed, read, or made use of in any proceeding pending in Court unless the interlineation or alteration (other than by erasure) is authenticated by the initials of the person taking the affidavit, nor in the case of an erasure, unless the words or figures appearing at the time of taking the affidavit to be written on the erasure are re-written and signed or initialled in the margin of the affidavit by the person taking it.

8. The Judge may receive any affidavit sworn for the purpose of being used in any action or matter, notwithstanding any defect by misdescription of parties or otherwise in the title or jurat, or any other irregularity in the form thereof, and in that event direct a memorandum to be made on the document that it has been so received.

9. Before any affidavit is used it shall be filed in the Office, but this Rule shall not hinder the Judge from making an order upon the undertaking of the applicant or his Solicitor to file any affidavit sworn before the making of such order, or permitted by the Judge to be made after such order, provided that the Judge may stay the issue of such order until such affidavit shall have been filed.

10. Every affidavit which is filed shall have endorsed thereon by the County Registrar a memorandum of the date on which the same was filed, and when so endorsed it shall be taken for all purposes to have been duly filed on the date so endorsed thereon.

11. Where a special time is limited for delivering or filing affidavits, no affidavit delivered or filed after that time shall be used unless by leave of the Judge.

12. Every alteration in an account verified by affidavit shall be marked with the initials of the person before whom the affidavit is sworn, and such alteration shall not be made by erasure.

13. Documents identified by or referred to in an affidavit shall not be annexed thereto, but shall be referred to therein as exhibits.

14. Every certificate on an exhibit referred to in an affidavit signed by the person before whom the affidavit is sworn shall be marked with the short title of the action or matter.

15. (1) Affidavits or declarations of service shall state when, where, and how, and by whom, such service was effected, and, in the case of delivery to any person, shall (subject to Order 11, Rule 7) state that the deponent was at the time of such delivery acquainted with the appearance of such person;

(2) Affidavits or declarations of service of a Civil Bill in actions for the recovery of land for non-payment of rent or for overholding shall state that the deponent or declarant does not know of any person other than those who have been served who is in the actual possession of the land sought to be recovered, or any part thereof, as tenant or undertenant;

(3) Affidavits or declarations of service of a Civil Bill in other actions for the recovery of land shall state that the deponent or declarant does not know of and does not believe that there is any person other than those who have been served in the actual possession, or in the receipt of the rents and profits of the lands sought to be recovered, or any part thereof. Such statement shall be verified by the affidavit of the Solicitor for the plaintiff, or of one of the persons by whom he was instructed to institute the proceedings, or if the plaintiff is not represented by a Solicitor, by the affidavit of the plaintiff.

16. The costs of every affidavit which shall unnecessarily set forth matters of hearsay, or which shall contain argumentative matter, or which shall be prolix, shall be borne by the party filing the same.