Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act, 1993

• Permanent Page URL

Evidence of records, computer readouts, photocopies, microfilms and copies of original documents in proceedings.

[1989, s. 20(1)]

225.—(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 Welfare 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 Welfare 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 .

[1989, s. 20(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.

[1989, s. 20(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 the provisions of subsection (2) shall be evidence of the fact of the making of such copy record and that it is a true copy, until the contrary is shown.

[1989, s. 20(4)]

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

[1989, s. 20(5)]

(5) In any proceedings any provable record may be given in evidence and shall be prima facie evidence of any fact therein stated or event thereby recorded:

Provided that 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.

[1989, s. 20(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.

[1989, s. 20(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 such 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:

Provided that the court is satisfied—

(a) of the reliability of the system used to compile or make and keep such 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.

[1989, s. 20(8)]

(8) This section shall apply to any original record or to any copy record made before the 26th day of March, 1989, in accordance with either of the methods referred to in subsection (2) but the proviso to 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 .