Communications Regulation and Digital Hub Development Agency (Amendment) Act 2023
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Chapter 6 Admissibility of certain evidence | ||
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Admissibility of evidence before Commission | ||
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100. (1) The type of proof that is admissible as evidence in proceedings under this Part or the Principal Act (whether criminal or civil, including proceedings before the Commission or an adjudicator) shall include relevant documents, oral statements, electronic messages, recordings and all other objects containing information, irrespective of the form it takes and the medium on which information is stored, provided that the evidence referred to would have been admissible before a court were it before a court. | ||
(2) If a document contains a statement by a person specified in subsection (3) asserting that an act has been done, or is, or was, proposed to be done, by another person, being an act that relates to a regulatory breach (the “relevant act”) then subject to the conditions specified in subsection (4) being satisfied, that statement shall be admissible in proceedings in respect of the regulatory breach as evidence that the relevant act was done by that other person or was proposed (at the time the statement was made, or, as the case may be, at a previous time) to be done by him or her. | ||
(3) The person referred to in subsection (2) is a person who has done an act of the kind referred to in that subsection in relation to the regulatory breach (whether or not the same as the act which the other person referred to in that subsection is alleged to have done or proposed to do). | ||
(4) The conditions referred to in subsection (2) are that the document referred to in that subsection— | ||
(a) has come into existence before the commencement of the proceedings under this Act in which it is sought to tender the document in evidence, and | ||
(b) has been prepared otherwise than in response to any enquiry made or question put by a member or officer of the Commission, a member of the Garda Síochána, an officer of the European Commission, or an authorised officer relative to any matter the subject of those proceedings. | ||
(5) In estimating the weight, if any, to be attached to evidence admitted by virtue of this section, regard shall be had to all the circumstances from which any inference can reasonably be drawn as to its accuracy or otherwise. | ||
(6) Where the proof admitted in evidence by virtue of this section comprises a statement by a person— | ||
(a) any evidence which, if the person who made the statement had been called as a witness, would have been admissible as relevant to his or her credibility as a witness shall be admissible for that purpose, | ||
(b) evidence may, with the leave of the court or adjudicator seised of the proceedings, be given of any matter which, if that person had been called as a witness, could have been put to him or her in cross-examination as relevant to his or her credibility but of which evidence could not be adduced by the cross-examining party, and | ||
(c) evidence tending to prove that that person, whether before or after making the statement, made (whether orally or not) a statement which is inconsistent with it shall, if not already admissible by virtue of any rule of law or other enactment, be admissible for the purpose of showing that he or she has contradicted himself or herself. | ||
(7) Nothing in this section shall prejudice the admissibility in any proceedings under this Act before a court or an adjudicator of any document, as evidence of any matters stated in it— | ||
(a) that is so admissible by virtue of any rule of law or other enactment, or | ||
(b) in respect of adjudicators, that would be admissible before a Court hearing civil proceedings by virtue of any rule of law or other enactment. | ||
(8) The provisions of Chapter 3 of the Civil Law and Criminal Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2020 shall apply to proceedings under this Act (whether criminal or civil, including proceedings under Chapters 1 to 5 and Part 6 ). |