Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005

Evidence.

[1993 s225(1)]

274.—(1) In this section—

“copy record” means any copy of an original record being a record made for the purposes of or in connection with this Act or schemes administered by the Department of Social and Family Affairs or a copy of that copy made in accordance with either of the methods referred to in subsection (2) and accompanied by the certificate referred to in subsection (3);

“original record” means any document, record, or record of an entry in a document or record or information stored by means of any mechanical or electronic device, whether or not in a legible form, which was made or stored by the Minister or a specified agency for the purposes of or in connection with this Act or schemes administered by the Department of Social and Family Affairs at the time of or shortly after the event recorded and which is in the possession of the Minister or a specified agency;

“provable record” means an original record or a copy record;

“specified agency” means An Post or a person authorised to carry on banking business under section 9 of the Central Bank Act 1971 .

[1993 s225(2)]

(2) The Minister or a specified agency may, where by reason of the deterioration of, or inconvenience in storing, or technical obsolescence in the manner of keeping any original record or any copy record, make a legible copy of the record or store information concerning that record otherwise than in a legible form so that the information is capable of being used to make a legible copy of the record, and the Minister or the specified agency may thereupon destroy the original record or the copy record provided that any authorisation required by the National Archives Act 1986 for such destruction has been granted.

[1993 s225(3)]

(3) In any proceedings a certificate signed by an officer of the Minister or a specified agency, as the case may be, stating that a copy record has been made in accordance with subsection (2) shall be evidence of the fact of the making of the copy record and that it is a true copy, until the contrary is shown.

[1993 s225(4)]

(4) A document purporting to be a certificate under subsection (3) is deemed to be such a certificate without proof of the signature of the person purporting to sign the certificate or that the person was a proper person to so sign, until the contrary is shown.

[1993 s225(5)]

(5) In any proceedings any provable record may be given in evidence and shall be prima facie evidence of any fact stated in or event recorded by that record, if the court is satisfied of the reliability of the system used to make or compile, in the case of an original record, that record, and in the case of a copy record, the original on which it was based.

[1993 s225(6)]

(6) Where information contained in a provable record is in a form which would normally not be comprehensible to a person who has no knowledge of that type of information, an explanation of its meaning by a suitably qualified person shall be admissible.

[1993 s225(7)]

(7) In any proceedings a certificate signed by an officer of the Minister or a specified agency, as the case may be, stating that a full and detailed search has been made for a provable record of an event in every place where those records are kept by the Minister or the agency, as the case may be, and that no such record has been found shall be prima facie evidence that the event did not happen, if the court is satisfied—

(a) as to the reliability of the system used to compile or make and keep the records,

(b) that, if the event had happened, a record would have been made of it, and

(c) that the system is such that the only reasonable explanation for the absence of a record is that the event did not happen.

[1993 s225(8)]

(8) This section applies to any original record or to any copy record made before 26 March 1989, in accordance with either of the methods referred to in subsection (2) but the proviso in that subsection shall not have effect in relation to anything deemed to have been done under that subsection before the commencement of section 7 of the National Archives Act 1986 .