Road Traffic Act, 1968

Control and operation of trailers.

10.—(1) The Minister may make regulations in relation to the control and operation of vehicles drawn by mechanically propelled vehicles.

(2) Regulations under this section may, in particular and without prejudice to the generality of subsection (1), provide for all or any of the following matters:

(a) the licensing of drawn vehicles;

(b) the payment of specified fees in respect of applications for licences or plates under the regulations and the disposition of such fees;

(c) the conditions subject to which drawn vehicles may be operated in public places;

(d) the keeping of specified records, the issue of specified certificates and the specifying of the persons by whom such certificates are to be issued;

(e) the production of the records and certificates to members of the Garda Síochána and specified officers of the Minister.

(3) Different regulations may be made under this section for different circumstances and in respect of different classes of vehicles.

(4) A certificate purporting to be issued pursuant to regulations under this section and stating that a specified person was on a specified day the holder of a licence under the regulations or that on a specified day a licence under the regulations was in force in respect of a specified vehicle shall, without proof of the signature of the person purporting to sign it or that he was the proper person to issue it, be evidence in any legal proceedings until the contrary is shown of the matters so stated.

(5) In a prosecution for an offence under this section in which a licence under regulations under this section is material, it shall be presumed, until the contrary is shown by the defendant, that at the material time, such a licence, then having effect, was not held.

(6) A person who contravenes a regulation under this section which is stated to be a penal regulation shall be guilty of an offence and, in such cases involving a vehicle as may be prescribed and where that person is not the owner of the vehicle, the owner shall also be guilty of an offence.