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

Appointment and powers of detention officers.

8.—(1) The Minister may from time to time appoint such and so many persons to be detention officers for the purposes of the Acts as he may think necessary and the Minister for the Public Service may sanction.

(2) A detention officer shall hold office on such terms and conditions and shall receive such remuneration and allowances as the Minister, with the sanction of the Minister for the Public Service, shall determine.

(3) The Minister may from time to time after consultation with the Veterinary Council of Ireland—

(a) determine the training to be undergone and the qualifications to be held by a detention officer;

(b) review the arrangements for the appointment of detention officers and the scope of the duties performed by such officers, and shall carry out such a review where requested to do so by that Council.

(4) It shall be the duty of a detention officer to carry out under the supervision of a veterinary examiner such examination of carcases or viscera as a veterinary examiner is empowered to carry out under the Acts, and any such examination by a detention officer under such supervision shall for the purposes of the Acts be deemed to be an examination by a veterinary examiner.

(5) Where a carcase or viscera the subject of an examination by a detention officer contain any abnormality, he shall cause the carcase or viscera to be detained for examination by a veterinary examiner.

(6) This section shall come into operation on such day as the Minister may appoint by order.

(7) The Minister may by order amend or revoke an order under this section.

(8) Every order made under this section shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling such order, is passed by either such House within the next 21 days on which that House has sat after the order is laid before it, the order shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

(9) In this section—

“the Acts” means Part III of the Act of 1930 and Part II of the Act of 1935;

“veterinary examiner” means a person who is a veterinary examiner for the purposes of the Act of 1930 or Part II of the Act of 1935.