Shannon Navigation Act, 1990
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Power of Commissioners to make bye-laws in relation to Shannon navigation. |
3.—(1) The Commissioners may make bye-laws for the care, conservation, management, control and maintenance and the regulation of the use of the Shannon navigation and in relation to the restoration, repair, improvement, extension and development thereof and, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, in relation to any one or more of the following matters: | |
(a) the regulation of the conditions (including conditions as to safety) under which boats may be used in the navigation channel, | ||
(b) the closing to navigation either temporarily or permanently of any part of the navigation channel, | ||
(c) the opening or reopening to navigation of any part of the navigation channel not open to navigation, | ||
(d) the alteration of water levels of the navigation channel, | ||
(e) the regulation of bathing in the navigation channel, | ||
(f) the prohibition of the building of bridges, weirs or other structures on, in or over, or culverts, pipes or drains under, the navigation channel without the consent of the Commissioners, | ||
(g) the prohibition of the use, save under and in accordance with a licence in that behalf granted by the Commissioners and containing such (if any) conditions as they consider necessary or expedient, of the Shannon navigation or any part of it, | ||
(h) without prejudice to the rights of any person to use water of or abstract water from the navigation channel, the regulation or prohibition of the use of water of, or the abstraction of water from, the navigation channel, | ||
(i) subject to subsection (4), the regulation of fishing in the navigation channel, | ||
(j) the prevention of damage to the Shannon navigation or the obstruction of the navigation channel, | ||
(k) the removal from or the prohibition of the passage through or use in the navigation channel of, or the use of any of the facilities or installations of the Shannon navigation by, any boat or thing which is or may become a danger to life, health, navigation or fish stocks or would otherwise interfere with the proper use of the Shannon navigation or in relation to which a fee, toll or charge due and payable under the bye-laws has not been paid or arrangements for its payment, acceptable to the Commissioners, have not been made, | ||
(l) the fixing, altering, charging and recovery of fees, tolls and charges in respect of— | ||
(i) the use by boats of the navigation channel or the facilities or installations of the Shannon navigation, whether for the purposes of their passage through the navigation or for the purposes of their being anchored, moored, tied up or laid up or for any other purpose, or | ||
(ii) the use of water of or the abstraction of water from the navigation channel, | ||
and the prohibition of the use referred to in subparagraph (i) or the use or abstraction referred to in subparagraph (ii) without payment of any fee, toll or charge payable under this paragraph in respect thereof or the making of arrangements, acceptable to the Commissioners, for its payment, | ||
(m) the establishment and maintenance by the Commissioners of a register in which entries containing specified information will be required to be made annually or at other specified times, on application in that behalf by their owners, in respect of boats or specified classes of boats using the Shannon navigation, the payment of fees by the owners of the boats concerned in respect of the entries and the prohibition of the use of the Shannon navigation by boats required to be, but not, registered in the register. | ||
(2) Bye-laws under this section may contain such incidental, subsidiary and ancillary provisions as the Commissioners consider necessary or expedient for the purposes of the bye-laws. | ||
(3) The Commissioners may, by bye-laws under this section, exercise from time to time as occasion requires the powers conferred on them by section 39 of the Shannon Act to fix and determine the limits of the river Shannon, and the rivers flowing into it that are improved under the Shannon Act, within which the other powers conferred on the Commissioners by the Shannon Act may be exercised. | ||
(4) Bye-laws under this section shall not be made in relation to any matter in respect of which regulations or bye-laws may be made under the Fisheries Acts, 1959 to 1983. | ||
(5) A person who contravenes a bye-law under this section shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable— | ||
(a) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding £1,000 (together with, in the case of a continuing contravention, a fine not exceeding £100 for every day on which the contravention is continued and not exceeding in total an amount which, when added to any other fine under this paragraph in relation to the contravention concerned, equals £1,000) or to imprisonment for any term not exceeding 6 months or to both, | ||
(b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding £5,000 (together with, in the case of a continuing contravention, a fine not exceeding £500 for every day on which the contravention is continued) or to imprisonment for any term not exceeding 2 years or to both. | ||
(6) Where an offence to which subsection (5) relates is committed by a body corporate and is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, any person being a director, manager or secretary of the body corporate, or a person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, that person, as well as the body corporate, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished as if he were guilty of the first-mentioned offence. | ||
(7) (a) The Commissioners may bring proceedings for a summary offence under this section. | ||
(b) Notwithstanding section 10 (4) of the Petty Sessions (Ireland) Act, 1851 , summary proceedings for an offence to which subsection (5) or (6) relates may be instituted within 12 months from the date of the offence. |