S.I. No. 48/2001 - European Communities (Slaughter of Bovine Animals Aged Over 30 Months) Regulations, 2001

I, Joe Walsh, Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 3 of the European Communities Act, 1972 (No. 27 of 1972), for the purpose of giving effect to Commission Regulation (EC) No. 2777/2000 of 18 December 2000¹ , hereby make the following regulations:

1. (1)    These Regulations may be cited as the European Communities (Slaughter of Bovine Animals Aged Over 30 Months) Regulations, 2001.

(2)    These Regulations shall cease to have effect on 30 June 2001.

2. (1)    In these Regulations -

“authorised officer” has the meaning assigned to it by Regulation 5 of these Regulations;

“Commission Regulation” means Commission Regulation (EC) No. 2777/2000 of 18 December 2000;

“local authority” means -

(a)      the corporation of a county borough, or

(b)      the council of administrative county,

and the functional area of a local authority for the purposes of these Regulations is the county borough, or as the case may be, the administrative county of that authority;

“Minister” means Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Development;

“Regulations of 1997” means European Communities (Fresh Meat) Regulations, 1997 ( S.I. No. 434 of 1997 );

“slaughter house” means a slaughter house approved under the Regulations of 1997.

(2)    A word or expression that is used in these Regulations and is also used in the Commission Regulation has, unless the contrary intention appears, the same meaning in these Regulations that it has in Commission Regulation.

3.          Bovine animals aged more than 30 months may only be slaughtered in slaughter houses specifically designated by the Minister for that purpose.

4.          The owner or person in charge of a slaughter house so designated shall comply with Articles 2(1), 5(1) to (4) and 6(3) of the Commission Regulation.

5. (1)    The Minister may appoint such and so many persons as he thinks fit to be authorised officers for the purposes of these Regulations and the Commission Regulation.

(2)    A local authority may appoint such and so many persons as it thinks fit to be authorised officers for the purposes of these Regulations and the Commission Regulation within its functional area.

(3)    An authorised officer shall be furnished with a warrant of his or her appointment by the Minister or a local authority, as the case may be, as an authorised officer and when exercising any power conferred on him or her by these Regulations such officer shall, if requested by any person affected, produce the warrant to that person.

(4)    An authorised officer appointed under Regulation 16 of the Regulations of 1997 and an inspector appointed under section 35 of the Abattoirs Act, 1988 , shall each be deemed to be an authorised officer for the purposes of these Regulations and the Commission Regulation.

(5)    An authorised officer may for the purposes of ensuring compliance with these Regulations and the Commission Regulation -

(a)        at all reasonable times, enter any slaughter house, abattoir (within the meaning of the Abattoirs Act, 1988 ) or any other premises or place in which he or she has reasonable grounds for believing bovine animals are slaughtered,

(b)        therein make such tests, examinations and inspections of slaughtered bovine animals and take samples from the carcasses of such animals as he or she considers necessary to ensure such compliance,

(c)        inspect and take copies of or extracts from or take away, if necessary, for the purpose of inspection or examination, any books, documents or other records (including in the case of information in a non-legible form a copy of an extract from such information in permanent legible form), which he or she finds in the course of his or her inspection, and

(d)        seize any bovine animal which is to be slaughtered, or carcass or part thereof of such animal which has been slaughtered, other than in accordance with these Regulations and the Commission Regulation, and in the case of a carcass or part thereof direct and supervise its disposal or destruction.

(6)    A person shall not obstruct or impede an authorised officer in the exercise of his or her powers under these Regulations.

7. (1)    A person who fails to comply with or contravenes these Regulations is guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £1,500 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months, or to both.

(2)    Where an offence under these Regulations is committed by a body corporate and is proved to have been so committed with the consent or connivance of or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of any person, being a director, manager, secretary or other officer of the body corporate, or a person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, that person, as well as the body corporate, is guilty of an offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished as if he or she were guilty of the first-mentioned offence.

(3)    An offence under these Regulations may be prosecuted by the Minister or by a local authority in whose functional area the offence has been committed.

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Instrument and does not purport to be a legal interpretation.)

The purpose of these Regulations is to limit the slaughter of bovine animals aged 30 months or over to premises approved under the European Communities (Fresh Meat) Regulations 1997.

¹ OJ No. L321, 19/12/2000, p. 47