Energy (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1995
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Appointment of authorised officers by Minister and powers of Minister and such officers. |
10.—(1) (a) The Minister may appoint one or more persons to be an authorised officer or authorised officers for the purposes of this section. | |
(b) Before appointing a person under this subsection the Minister shall consult with the Minister for Enterprise and Employment where the Minister considers it appropriate to do so having regard to the functions of that Minister of the Government. | ||
(2) A person appointed under subsection (1) shall, on his or her appointment, be furnished by the Minister with a certificate of his or her appointment and when exercising a power conferred by this section shall, if requested by any person thereby affected, produce such certificate to that person for inspection. | ||
(3) An authorised officer may— | ||
(a) enter at any time an energy infrastructure for the purpose of exercising any powers conferred on him or her by this section, | ||
(b) make such inspections and carry out such tests as he or she thinks fit in relation to the carrying on of any activities in or on an energy infrastructure (which may include the monitoring and assessment of the effects on the marine environment of the carrying on of any such activities), | ||
(c) require any person in or on an energy infrastructure to produce to him or her such documents, records or materials as are in that person's possession or control relating to the infrastructure and to give to him or her such information as he or she may reasonably require in regard to such documents, records or materials, | ||
(d) either in or on an energy infrastructure or elsewhere, inspect and copy or extract information from documents, records or materials produced to him or her under paragraph (c) or which he or she finds in or on the energy infrastructure, | ||
(e) take samples of any substance, gas or liquid present in or on an energy infrastructure, and carry out tests, either in or on the infrastructure or elsewhere, on or in relation to the substance, gas or liquid, | ||
(f) require any person holding any position of authority or responsibility in relation to the carrying on of any activities in or on an energy infrastructure to give to him or her such information as he or she may reasonably require in relation to the procedures employed or steps taken in the carrying on of such activities to comply with the provision of any enactment or instrument thereunder relating to the safety of the carrying on of such activities. | ||
(4) Subject to subsection (5), where the Minister or an authorised officer is of the opinion that the manner in which any activities that are being carried on at an energy infrastructure is causing or is likely to cause injury to persons or damage to property or an environmental medium or the undue loss, contamination, deterioration or misuse of petroleum, as the case may be, the Minister or the authorised officer may serve a notice on the person carrying on such activities requiring that person to take within a period specified in the notice such steps as are specified in the notice to prevent such injury or damage or such loss, contamination, deterioration or misuse of petroleum. | ||
(5) The powers of the Minister or an authorised officer under subsection (4) in respect of— | ||
(a) damage to an environmental medium shall not extend to any case in which functions stand vested for the time being in the Environmental Protection Agency or a local authority in relation to the protection of the environmental medium concerned, and | ||
(b) injury to persons shall not extend to any case in which functions stand vested for the time being in the National Authority for Occupational Safety and Health or any other person in relation to the taking of steps to prevent or reduce the risk of the injury concerned to persons arising. | ||
(6) Where the Minister or the authorised officer concerned regards it as necessary in the interests of safety that the notice should so require, a notice under subsection (4) may include a provision requiring the person carrying on the activities concerned to cause the infrastructure concerned to be evacuated of persons or specified persons within such period as is specified in the notice (which may be different from the period specified in the notice for the doing of any other thing) and to ensure that no person (other than an authorised officer or any other person entitled by or under statute to enter the infrastructure concerned) or only specified persons enters or enter the infrastructure during such period as is specified in the notice. | ||
(7) If a person fails to comply with a requirement contained in a notice under subsection (4)— | ||
(a) the Minister or the authorised officer concerned, as the case may be, may enter the infrastructure concerned and carry out the requirement and do all things necessary for or incidental to that purpose, and | ||
(b) the expenses incurred in so carrying out the requirement shall be paid by the person to the Minister or the authorised officer, as the case may be, and, in default of payment, shall be recoverable by the Minister or the authorised officer from the person as a simple contract debt in any court of competent jurisdiction. | ||
(8) Where a notice under subsection (4) requires the carrying out of any works within the meaning of the Local Government (Planning and Development) Acts, 1963 to 1993, the carrying out of such works, whether by the person on whom the notice has been served or, as the case may be, the Minister or the authorised officer concerned under subsection (7), shall be exempted development for the purposes of those Acts. | ||
(9) An authorised officer, in exercising a power under this section, may be accompanied by, and assisted in the exercise of the power by, one or more members of the Garda Síochána. | ||
(10) Any person who— | ||
(a) obstructs or impedes an authorised officer in the exercise of his or her powers under this section, | ||
(b) without reasonable excuse, refuses or fails to comply with a requirement made of him or her under subsection (3) or with a requirement contained in a notice under subsection (4), or | ||
(c) makes a statement or furnishes information to an authorised officer, pursuant to a requirement made of him or her under subsection (3) by such an officer, which is false or misleading in a material respect, knowing it to be so false or misleading or being reckless as to whether it is so false or misleading, | ||
shall be guilty of an offence. | ||
(11) A person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable— | ||
(a) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding £1,500 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both, | ||
(b) on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding £50,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 years or to both. | ||
(12) In this section— | ||
“activities” includes steps referred to in section 1 (2); | ||
“environmental medium” has the meaning assigned to it by the Environmental Protection Agency Act, 1992 ; | ||
“local authority” means a local authority for the purposes of the Local Government Act, 1941 . |