Merchant Shipping (Registration of Ships) Act 2014

Representative persons

16. (1) Where a qualified person is not resident in the State or does not have a registered office in the State, that person shall appoint a representative person who satisfies the criteria under subsection (2) and who shall remain appointed for so long as the ship remains on the Register or until otherwise the appointment is terminated by the person appointing.

(2) For the purpose of this section a representative person is either—

(a) an individual who has domicile in the State, or

(b) a body corporate incorporated in a Member State or an EEA state and having a place of business in the State.

(3) A qualified person referred to in subsection (1) shall—

(a) on application for registration, notify the Minister on an approved form of the name, address and contact details of the representative person, and

(b) except in circumstances arising from the sudden death or serious illness of the qualified person or representative person, give the Minister at least 30 days notice on an approved form of any proposed change in the identity, address or contact details of the representative person.

(4) The Minister shall record on the Register the information relating to representative persons received in accordance with subsection (3).

(5) A representative person may be the manager of the ship and shall control and direct the operations of the ship from within the State in accordance with regulations made by the Minister under section 11 .

(6) Subject to section 67 , any document or notification required or authorised to be served by or under this Act or required or authorised by virtue of any statutory provision to be served for the purpose or otherwise in connection with proceedings for an offence under this Act, or under any instrument in force under this Act, on a qualified person shall be treated as duly served on that person if delivered to any representative person for the time being appointed.

(7) This section does not apply in the case of ships that are subject to visitor registration granted under section 24 .

(8) A qualified person referred to in subsection (1) who fails to comply with subsection (1) or (3) commits an offence.