Emergency Powers Act, 1939

• Permanent Page URL

Emergency orders.

2.—(1) The Government may, whenever and so often as they think fit, make by order (in this Act referred to as an emergency order) such provisions as are, in the opinion of the Government, necessary or expedient for securing the public safety or the preservation of the State, or for the maintenance of public order, or for the provision and control of supplies and services essential to the life of the community.

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing sub-section of this section, the Government may do by an emergency order all or any of the following things, that is to say:—

(a) authorise and provide for the regulation and control by or on behalf of the State of all or any supplies or services essential to the life of the comunity and, where the Government so thinks proper, the maintenance and provision of such essential supplies by or on behalf of the State and the provision and operation of such essential services by or on behalf of the State;

(b) authorise a Minister to buy and sell goods of a particular kind or class or to engage in any other form of trade in relation to goods of a particular kind or class, and make such provisions as may be requisite in relation to such buying, selling, or trading;

(c) authorise and provide for the control, regulation, restriction, or prohibition of the import or of the export of particular kinds or classes of goods;

(d) authorise and provide for the acquisition (either by agreement or compulsorily) by or on behalf of the State of any currency (other than Irish currency), bills, credits and balances, payable otherwise than in Irish currency, gold coin and bullion, and securities, and for the ascertainment of the price to be paid therefor in the case of compulsory acquisition, and for the control and restriction of dealings in any currency, bills, credits and balances payable otherwise than in Irish currency, gold coin and bullion, and securities, and for the control and restriction of issues of capital;

(e) authorise and provide for the regulation and control of navigation by sea or air and the movements of ships and other vessels and aircraft, and for the making and enforcement of provisions for securing, or contributing to the safety of ships and other vessels and aircraft;

(f) authorise and provide for the regulation and restriction of the transfer, mortgaging and registration of ships and other vessels and aircraft;

(g) authorise and provide for the acquisition, taking possession, control or user (either by agreement or compulsorily) by or on behalf of the State of any land or other property whatsoever;

(h) authorise and provide for the censorship, restriction, control, or partial or complete suspension of communication by means of all or one or more of the services maintained or controlled by the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs or by any other means, whether public or private, specified or indicated in such emergency order;

(i) make provision for preserving and safeguarding the secrecy of official documents and information and for controlling the publication of official information and for prohibiting the publication or spreading of subversive statements and propaganda, and authorise and provide for the control and censorship of newspapers and periodicals;

(j) authorise and provide for the prohibition, restriction, or control of the entry or departure of persons into or out of the State and the movements of persons within the State;

(k) authorise and provide for the detention of persons (other than natural-born Irish citizens) where such detention is, in the opinion of a Minister, necessary or expedient in the interests of the public safety or the preservation of the State;

(l) authorise the arrest without warrant of persons (other than natural-born Irish citizens) whose detention has been ordered or directed by a Minister;

(m) authorise the arrest without warrant of persons who are charged with or are suspected of having committed or being about to commit or being or having been concerned in the commission of an offence under any section of this Act or any other specified crime or offence;

(n) authorise and provide for the entering into and searching of any lands, premises, vehicles, ships and other vessels, or aircraft in circumstances and by persons specified or indicated in such emergency order;

(o) authorise and provide for the searching of persons in circumstances and by persons specified or indicated in such emergency order;

(p) suspend the operation of or amend or apply (with or without modification) any enactment (other than this Act) for the time being in force or any instrument made under any such enactment.

(3) Whenever the Government makes an emergency order, the Government may, in lieu of making provision for or doing any particular thing in or by such emergency order, authorise or empower by such emergency order a Minister or any other person specified or indicated in such emergency order to make the said provision or to do the said thing and for that purpose (subject to such (if any) conditions and consents as may be specified in such emergency order) to make, grant, or issue such instruments and give such directions as shall appear to such Minister or person to be necessary or proper for the said purpose.

(4) An emergency order may contain all such incidental or ancillary provisions as shall appear to the Government to be necessary or expedient for giving full effect to any provision inserted in such emergency order under the powers conferred on the Government by the foregoing provisions of this section.

(5) Nothing in this section shall authorise the imposition of taxation or the imposition of any form of compulsory military service or any form of industrial conscription, or the making of provision for the trial by courts-martial of persons not being persons subject to military law.

(6) Nothing in this section shall be construed as authorising the declaration of war or the participation by the State in any war without the assent of Dáil Eireann.