Health (Nursing Homes) Act, 1990

Provisions in relations to offences.

12.—(1) Proceedings for a summary offence under this Act may be brought and prosecuted by the health board in whose functional area the nursing home to which the offence relates is situated or, as the case may be, the health board by which the arrangement for the boarding out to which the offence relates was made and carried out.

(2) Notwithstanding section 10 (4) of the Petty Sessions (Ireland) Act, 1851 , summary proceedings for an offence under this Act may be instituted within 12 months from the date of the offence.

(3) Where an offence under this Act is committed by a body corporate and is proved to have been so committed with the consent or connivance of or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of any person, being a director, manager, secretary or other officer of the body corporate, or a person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, that person, as well as the body corporate, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punished as if he were guilty of the first-mentioned offence.

(4) The functions conferred by subsection (1) shall be functions of the chief executive officers of the health boards concerned and of persons acting as deputy chief executive officers of those boards in accordance with section 13 of the Health Act, 1970 .