International Protection Act 2026
|
Prohibition against certain conduct in relation to inspection | ||
|
96. (1) A person who— | ||
(a) refuses to allow an authorised person, in the performance of his or her functions under section 95 — | ||
(i) to enter, in accordance with that section or in accordance with a warrant issued pursuant to section 95 , an accommodation centre or any part of it other than a dwelling, or | ||
(ii) to enter, under and in accordance with a warrant issued under section 95 , a dwelling, | ||
(b) refuses to allow a member of An Garda Síochána, or any person who accompanies an authorised person, to enter, under and in accordance with a warrant issued under section 95 , an accommodation centre or any part of it including a dwelling, | ||
(c) obstructs or impedes— | ||
(i) an authorised person in the performance of his or her functions under section 95 , or | ||
(ii) a member of An Garda Síochána, or any person who accompanies an authorised person, in accordance with a warrant issued under section 95 , | ||
or | ||
(d) gives to an authorised person, in the performance of his or her functions under section 95 , information that the person giving the information knows, or should reasonably know, to be false or misleading, | ||
shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction, to a class A fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, or both. | ||
(2) Summary proceedings for an offence under this section may be brought and prosecuted by the monitoring body. | ||
(3) Notwithstanding section 10 (4) of the Petty Sessions (Ireland) Act 1851 , summary proceedings for an offence under this section may be brought— | ||
(a) within 12 months from the date on which the offence was committed or alleged to have been committed, or | ||
(b) within 6 months from the date on which evidence first comes to the knowledge of the monitoring body that is sufficient, in the opinion of the monitoring body, to justify the bringing of the proceedings, | ||
whichever is the later, but no such proceedings shall be instituted later than 2 years from the date on which the offence was committed or alleged to have been committed. | ||
(4) For the purposes of subsection (3)(b), a document, purporting to have been issued by the monitoring body, certifying the date on which the evidence described in that subsection first came to the knowledge of the monitoring body— | ||
(a) is admissible without proof of the signature or official character of the person appearing to have signed the document, and | ||
(b) in the absence of evidence to the contrary, is proof of the matters certified in the document. | ||
(5) Where an offence under this section is committed by a body corporate and it is proved that the offence was committed with the consent or connivance, or was attributable to any wilful neglect, of a person who was a director, manager, secretary or other officer of the body corporate, or a person purporting to act in that capacity, that person, as well as the body corporate, shall be guilty of an offence and may be proceeded against and punished as if he or she were guilty of the first-mentioned offence. |