Air Navigation and Transport Act, 1988

1975 Protocols to the Warsaw Convention to have the force of law in the State.

36.—(1) The 1975 Protocols to the Warsaw Convention (as set out, respectively, in Parts I , II , III and IV of the First Schedule ) shall have the force of law in the State and section 18 (as amended by the Act of 1965 and this Act) of, and the First Schedule (as amended by the Act of 1959) to, the Principal Act shall have effect accordingly.

(2) The Minister, after consultation with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, may by order from time to time certify the states that are parties to the 1975 Protocols to the Warsaw Convention or, as the case may be, to any of those Protocols, or may certify in respect of which of their territories such states are parties, and to what extent such states have availed themselves of the right of reservation provided for in Article X of the Protocol set out in Part II of the First Schedule or in Article XI of the Protocol set out in Part III of that Schedule or in Article XXI of the Protocol set out in Part IV of that Schedule.

(3) Any sum in Special Drawing Rights mentioned in Article 22 of the First Schedule (as amended by the Act of 1959) to the Principal Act, as amended by Article II of the Protocol set out in Part I of the First Schedule , or by Article II of the Protocol set out in Part II of that Schedule, or by Article II or III of the Protocol set out in Part III of that Schedule or by Article VII of the Protocol set out in Part IV of that Schedule, as the case may be, shall, for the purposes of an action against the carrier, be converted into the currency of the State on the day on which the amount of any damages to be paid by the carrier is ascertained by the Court and—

(a) for the purpose of converting such an amount from Special Drawing Rights into the currency of the State one Special Drawing Right shall be treated as equal to such a sum in the currency of the State as the International Monetary Fund have fixed as being the equivalent of one Special Drawing Right for—

(i) that day, or

(ii) if no sum has been so fixed for that day, the last day before that day for which a sum has been so fixed;

(b) a certificate given by or on behalf of the Central Bank stating that—

(i) a particular sum in the currency of the State has been so fixed for the day on which the damages were ascertained by the Court, or

(ii) no sum has been so fixed for that day and that a particular sum in the currency of the State has been so fixed for a day which is the last day for which a sum had been so fixed before the day on which the damages were ascertained by the Court,

shall be evidence until the contrary is proved of those matters for the purposes of this section;

(c) a document purporting to be such a certificate shall, in any proceedings, be received in evidence and, unless the contrary is proved, be deemed to be such a certificate.