Public Safety (Emergency Powers) Act, 1923

Establishment of Appeal Councils.

4.—(1) As soon as may be after the passing of this Act, there shall be established by an Executive Minister one or more Appeal Councils consisting of not less than three members of whom one shall be a practising barrister or solicitor of not less than five years' standing.

(2) Any person detained in custody under this Act, whether under an order of an Executive Minister or by the military authorities, may in the prescribed manner request that an enquiry into the matter of his detention be made by an Appeal Council, and such Council shall thereupon with all convenient speed inquire in the prescribed manner into the case of such person and shall report in the prescribed form to such Executive Minister the result of such inquiry.

(3) At any inquiry under this section the Appeal Council shall be furnished with the reports or certificates in virtue of which the person whose case is being inquired into is being detained.

(4) When such an Executive Minister shall receive a report from an Appeal Council that there are no reasonable grounds for suspecting the person interned of having committed or being engaged or concerned in the commission of any of the offences mentioned in the Schedule to this Act he shall, within one calendar month from the receipt of the report, order his release unless—

(a) he shall refer back the report to the Appeal Council for the consideration of further evidence, or

(b) the person be charged with any offence punishable by imprisonment.

(5) No person serving a sentence of imprisonment or penal servitude imposed by a tribunal established by the military authorities shall be entitled to appeal to an Appeal Council under this section.

(6) An Executive Minister shall make regulations for the execution by Appeal Councils of the functions imposed on them by this section, and the word “prescribed” where used in this section means prescribed by such regulations. Any such regulations shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after they are made, and if either House of the Oireachtas shall pass a resolution annulling the regulations, the regulations shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything already done under them.