Agricultural Produce (Meat) (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1978

Fees payable on exporter's licences.

6.—(1) The following section and the Schedule to this Act are hereby substituted for section 13 and the Schedule to the Act of 1930, respectively:

“13.—(1) On every application for an exporter's licence there shall be paid to the Minister by the applicant an amount of £12.50, returnable to the applicant if his application is refused, and the payment of such amount shall be a condition precedent to the grant of licence, and on the grant of that licence the amount shall be retained by the Minister.

(2) Every person who holds or has held an exporter's licence shall, for every month during which (or any part of which) he held one or more exporter's licences, pay to the Minister—

(a) where the person so held either one exporter's licence only or two or more such licences all granted in respect of the same registered slaughtering premises, a fee (in this Act referred to as an ‘exporter's monthly fee’) computed according to the rules in the Schedule to this Act, or

(b) where the person so held two or more exporter's licences and the licences were not all granted in respect of the same registered slaughtering premises, a fee (in this Act included in the expression ‘exporter's monthly fee’) computed according to the rules in the Schedule to this Act for each registered slaughtering premises in respect of which any one or more of such licences was or were granted.

(3) As soon as may be after the expiration of every month the Minister shall ascertain, in respect of every person who during the whole or any part of that month held one or more exporter's licences, the amount of the exporter's monthly fee or of each of such fees payable by that person for that month.

(4) And so soon as the amount of any exporter's monthly fee has been ascertained under this section, the Minister shall issue a certificate (in this section referred to as a ‘certificate of indebtedness’) in the prescribed form certifying the month for which the fee is payable, the person by whom and the registered slaughtering premises in respect of which the fee is payable, and the amount of the fee.

(5) Every certificate of indebtedness shall be sufficient evidence until the contrary is shown of all matters purported to be certified in the certificate and any document purporting to be a certificate of indebtedness issued under this section shall, on production of the certificate in any proceedings to recover the amount certified to be payable, be deemed until the contrary is shown to be a certificate of indebtedness duly issued under this section and shall be admitted in evidence accordingly.

(6) As soon as may be after the issue of a certificate of indebtedness, a copy of the certificate shall be served on the person certified by the certificate as liable to pay the fee mentioned in the certificate and, immediately on the service, that amount shall become and be payable by that person to the Minister and shall, after the expiration of fourteen days from the service, be recoverable by the Minister as a simple contract debt in any court of competent jurisdiction.

(7) Where a licensed exporter fails or neglects to pay the amount certified by a certificate of indebtedness to be payable by him within four weeks after the service of a copy of the certificate on him, the Minister may revoke the exporter's licence or all the exporter's licences held by that person in respect of the registered slaughtering premises in relation to which that amount is payable, but the revocation shall not relieve the licensed exporter from liability to pay that amount.

(8) Where an exporter's licence is revoked under subsection (7) of this section and the holder of the licence is also the registered proprietor of the premises in respect of which the licence was granted, the registration of those premises in the register or all the registers in which those premises are registered under this Act shall be cancelled as soon as may be after such revocation, and those premises shall not again be registered in that register or any of such registers so long as the amount or any part of the amount, the non-payment of which occasioned the revocation, remains unpaid.

(9) Where regulations are proposed to be made pursuant to rule 1 of the Schedule to this Act, a draft of the regulations shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas and the regulations shall not be made until a resolution approving of the draft has been passed by each such House.”.

(2) This section shall come into operation on the 1st day of July, 1978, and section 13 of the Act of 1930 (as amended by this Act) and the Schedule to the Act of 1930 (as so amended) shall apply and have effect accordingly.