S.I. No. 219/1971 - Mines and Quarries Inquiries (Draft Regulations) Rules, 1971.


S.I. No. 219 of 1971.

MINES AND QUARRIES INQUIRIES (DRAFT REGULATIONS) RULES, 1971.

I, JOSEPH BRENNAN, Minister for Labour, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by Article 8 of the Second Schedule to the Mines and Quarries Act, 1965 (No. 7 of 1965), and the Labour (Transfer of Departmental Administration and Ministerial Functions) Order, 1966 ( S.I. No. 164 of 1966 ), hereby make the following rules:

1. These Rules may be cited as the Mines and Quarries Inquiries (Draft Regulations) Rules, 1971.

2. In these Rules—

"the Act" means the Mines and Quarries Act, 1965 (No. 7 of 1965);

"inquiry" means an inquiry under the Second Schedule to the Act;

"meeting for directions" has the meaning assigned to it by Rule 4 (1) of these Rules and includes any resumed meeting after a previous adjournment of the meeting;

"tribunal" has the meaning assigned to it by Rule 3 of these Rules.

3. As soon as may be after the appointment under the Act by the Minister of a person or persons to hold an inquiry (such a person or persons being in these Rules referred to as a tribunal) that tribunal shall publish, or cause to be published, in such manner as it thinks fit for the purpose of notifying persons likely to be affected by the draft regulations with which it is concerned, and send, or cause to be sent, by post to the Minister and to every person who duly made an objection relating to such draft regulations, a notice specifying—

(a) the name of the person or persons appointed to hold the inquiry and in case more than one person has been so appointed, the name of the person who will preside at the inquiry, and

(b) an address to which all communications for the tribunal are to be sent.

4. (1) A tribunal may, for the purpose of facilitating the just, expeditious and economical disposal of an inquiry, if it thinks fit hold a preliminary meeting mentioned in the following paragraphs of this rule to determine which persons may appear at the inquiry (such a meeting being in these Rules referred to as a meeting for directions) and in case it decides to hold a meeting for directions it shall include in the notice published and sent under Rule 3 of these Rules, or in a subsequent notice published and sent in the manner specified in the said Rule 3, the date on which and the place and time at which the tribunal will hold the meeting for directions.

(2) If a meeting for directions is to be held, every person who wishes to appear at the inquiry shall at that meeting either in person or by counsel, solicitor or agent satisfy the tribunal that he is a person affected by the draft regulations with respect to which the inquiry is being held and the tribunal shall in due course inform a person by whom an application under this paragraph is made of its decision and cause the decision to be recorded by the tribunal.

(3) At any meeting for directions, the tribunal may, in addition to dealing with applications mentioned in paragraph (2) of this rule, and having afforded any person appearing at the inquiry an opportunity to be heard, give such directions as to the future course of the inquiry as appear to it best adapted to secure the purposes mentioned in paragraph (1) of this rule and in particular, but without prejudice to the generality of that paragraph the tribunal may—

(a) direct that evidence of any fact or opinion shall be given at the inquiry in a particular manner specified in the direction,

(b) direct that any person appearing at the inquiry who desires to produce thereat any plans, photographs, models, statistics or results of experiments shall, not later than ten days before the meeting of the inquiry at which it is proposed that they shall be produced, afford to every other person so appearing an opportunity of inspecting the plans, photographs, models or documents or a copy thereof and of agreeing to the admission thereof at the inquiry without further proof,

(c) give such directions as it thinks necessary or expedient as to the order in which objections or representations will be considered at the inquiry and as to the order in which persons appearing at the inquiry will be heard, and

(d) direct the date on which and time at which the inquiry shall be held.

5. In case a meeting for directions is not to be held by a tribunal, that tribunal shall publish, or cause to be published, in such manner as it thinks fit for the purpose of notifying persons likely to be affected by the draft regulations with which it is concerned and send, or cause to be sent, by post to the Minister and to every person who duly made an objection with respect to a provision of such draft regulations, a notice specifying the date on which and place and time at which the inquiry will be held.

6. (1) At and for the purposes of any inquiry, a tribunal may—

(a) enter and inspect any premises occupied by any person appearing at an inquiry and which would be affected by the relevant draft regulations if made,

(b) having afforded any person appearing at the inquiry an opportunity to be heard and if it then appears to it to be appropriate, make any order or give any direction which it could have made or given at a meeting for directions, or amend, vary, reverse or revoke any order, direction or other decision made or given at a meeting for directions held in relation to the inquiry,

(c) in dealing with any outstanding matter arising at the inquiry, and in particular, any matter in relation to which any party appearing at the inquiry has failed either to comply with any of these Rules or to deal with at the hearing, dispose of the matter in such manner as it thinks fit, and

(d) in so far only as appears to it to be reasonable having regard to the desirability of making a report to the Minister as soon as may be, adjourn the inquiry from time to time.

(2) Without prejudice to the right of any person appearing at an inquiry to refuse to make admissions, a tribunal shall endeavour to secure that persons so appearing make all admissions necessary to enable the inquiry to proceed and for that purpose shall urge persons so appearing to enter such agreements as to the conduct of the inquiry as appear to the tribunal to be reasonable in the circumstances.

(3) Subject to the provisions of the Act and of these Rules, a tribunal may regulate its procedure.

7. In every case in which the Minister has appointed a tribunal consisting of two or more persons—

(a) every decision of a majority of those persons present and voting shall be a decision of the tribunal,

(b) in any case in which the votes of those persons present and voting are equally divided, the person presiding over the inquiry shall have a second or casting vote.

8. In case an objection made by a person appearing at an inquiry is disallowed, or is allowed only in part, by a tribunal, the person holding or presiding at the inquiry, as the case may be, may, if he thinks fit, make an order requiring the person by whom the objection was made to pay to the Minister the costs of the inquiry (including the remuneration of the tribunal) or such portion of those costs as he considers reasonable in the circumstances, and any sum required to be paid to the Minister by an order under this rule may in default of payment be recovered by the Minister as a simple contract debt in any court of competent jurisdiction.

9. The remuneration of a tribunal shall be of such amount as is determined by the Minister with the approval of the Minister for Finance.

GIVEN under my Official Seal, this 14th day of July, 1971.

JOSEPH BRENNAN,

Minister for Labour.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.

The purpose of these Rules is to make provision governing the conduct of an inquiry into objections to draft regulations under the Mines and Quarries Act, 1965 .