Public Safety (Powers of Arrest and Detention) Temporary Act, 1924

Appeal Councils.

5.—(1) All existing Appeal Councils established under section 4 of the Public Safety (Emergency Powers) Act, 1923 (No. 28 of 1923) shall be continued for the purposes of this section, and such additional Appeal Councils as shall be necessary for the said purposes shall be established by an Executive Minister.

(2) Every Appeal Council continued or established under this section shall consist of not less than three members of whom one shall be a practising barrister or solicitor of not less than five years' standing or shall be or have been a judge of the Supreme Court of Judicature in Ireland, or a Recorder or County Court judge in Ireland, or a judge of the Dáil Supreme Court as defined in the Dáil Eireann Courts (Winding-Up) Act, 1923 (No. 36 of 1923), or a judge of the Supreme Court, High Court or Circuit Court.

(3) There may be paid out of moneys to be provided by the Oireachtas, to any member of an Appeal Council who is not in receipt of remuneration out of public funds such fees or remuneration as the Minister for Finance may determine.

(4) 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.

(5) 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.

(6) 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 fourteen days 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.

(7) 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,

(8) An Executive Minister shall make regulations for the execution by Appeal Councils of the functions imposed on them by this section, and may for that purpose by order continue in force any existing regulations made under section 4 of the Public Safety (Emergency Powers) Act, 1923 .

(9) All regulations made or continued under this section 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.

(10) In this section the word “prescribed” means prescribed by regulations made or continued under this section.