Merchant Shipping Act, 1966

Cargo ship safety construction certificates and exemption certificates.

4.—(1) If the Minister or such person as he may authorise for the purpose is satisfied, on receipt of declarations of survey in respect of a ship to which section 3 of this Act applies and which is registered in the State, that the ship complies with the cargo ship construction and survey rules applicable to the ship and such voyages as she is to be engaged on, he shall, on the application of the owner, issue in respect of the ship—

(a) if the ship is of not less than five hundred tons gross tonnage and is to be engaged on international voyages, a certificate in the form prescribed by the Convention;

(b) in any other case, a certificate showing that she complies with the said rules;

and any such certificate is in this Act referred to as a cargo ship safety construction certificate.

(2) If the Minister, on receipt of declarations of survey in respect of such a ship, is satisfied that the ship is exempt, by virtue of any exercise by him of a power conferred on him by section 45 of the Act of 1952 or the cargo ship construction and survey rules, from any of the requirements of those rules applicable to the ship and to such voyages as she is to be engaged on, and that she complies with the rest of those requirements, he shall, on the application of the owner, issue in respect of the ship—

(a) if she is of not less than five hundred tons gross tonnage and is to be engaged on international voyages—

(i) an exemption certificate stating which of the requirements of the Convention, being requirements implemented by the rules and applicable as aforesaid, the ship is exempt from and that the exemption is conditional on the ship's plying on the voyages and complying with the other conditions (if any) specified in the certificate; and

(ii) a certificate showing that the ship complies with the rest of those requirements;

(b) in any other case, a certificate showing that the ship complies with such of the requirements of the cargo ship construction and survey rules applicable to the ship and to the voyages she is to be engaged on as she is not exempt from;

and any certificate issued under paragraph (a) (ii) or paragraph (b) of this subsection is in this Act referred to as a qualified cargo ship safety construction certificate.

(3) A certificate issued under this section, other than an exemption certificate, shall remain in force for five years or such shorter period as may be specified in it, but without prejudice to the Minister's power to cancel it; and an exemption certificate issued under this section shall remain in force for the same period as the corresponding qualified certificate.

(4) The Minister may by order extend the period for which a certificate under this section may be issued to a period not exceeding six years.

(5) Without prejudice to the power of extension conferred by section 27 (5) of the Act of 1952, where a certificate under this section is in force in respect of a ship and the certificate was issued for a shorter period than is allowed under the foregoing provisions of this section, the Minister or any person authorised by him for the purpose may, if satisfied on receipt of declarations of survey in respect of the ship that it is proper to do so, grant an extension of the certificate for a period not exceeding one year, and not exceeding, together with the period for which it was issued and any period by which it has been previously extended under this subsection, the longest period for which it could have been issued under this section.

(6) In relation to a certificate issued or extended under this section by a person authorised by the Minister—

(a) the provisions applied by section 27 (8) of the Act of 1952 (which relate to the transmission, cancellation, surrender, posting-up and falsification of certificates issued by the Minister), except section 276 of the Principal Act (transmission of certificates), and

(b) section 5 of the Act of 1952 (fees);

shall apply as they apply in relation to certificates issued by the Minister, but so much of section 6 of the Act of 1952 as requires fees to be paid into or disposed of for the benefit of the Exchequer shall not apply.

(7) An order under subsection (4) of this section may be varied or revoked by a subsequent order.