Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878

Justices may make an order for the vaccination of any child under 14 years.

147. If any registrar, or any officer appointed by the guardians to enforce the provisions of the Acts relating to vaccination in Ireland, shall give information in writing to a justice of the peace that he has reason to believe that any child under the age of fourteen years, being within the union or district for which the informant acts, has not been successfully vaccinated, and that he has given notice to the father or mother of the said child, or to the person having the care nurture or custody of such child, to procure its being vaccinated, and that this notice has been disregarded, the justice may summon such father or mother or person to appear with the child before him at a certain time and place, and upon the appearance, if the justice shall find, after such examination as he shall deem necessary, that the child has not been vaccinated, nor has already had the smallpox, he may, if he see fit, make an order under his hand and seal directing such child to be vaccinated within a certain time; and if at the expiration of such time the child shall not have been so vaccinated, or shall not be shown to be then unfit to be vaccinated, or to be insusceptible of vaccination, the person upon whom such order shall have been made shall be proceeded against summarily, and, unless he can show some reasonable ground for his omission to carry the order into effect, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty shillings:

Provided, that if the justice shall be of opinion that the person is improperly brought before him, and shall refuse to make any order for the vaccination of the child, he may order the informant to pay to such person such sum of money as he shall consider to be a fair compensation for his expenses and loss of time in attending before the justice.