S.I. No. 21 of 2006

Passive Fishing Gear and Beam Trawls Marking and Identification Regulations 2006

I, Pat the Cope Gallagher, Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 224B (inserted by section 5 of the Fisheries (Amendment) Act 1983 (No. 27 of 1983)) of the Fisheries (Consolidation) Act 1959 (No. 14 of 1959) and the Fisheries (Transfer of Departmental Administration and Ministerial Functions) Order 1977 ( S.I. No. 30 of 1977 ) (as adapted by the Marine and Natural Resources (Alteration of Name of Department and Title of Minister) Order 2002 ( S.I. No. 307 of 2002 ) and the Marine (Delegation of Ministerial Functions) (No. 5) Order 2005 (No. 843 of 2005)), hereby make the following regulations:

1.    These Regulations may be cited as the Passive Fishing Gear and Beam Trawls Marking and Identification Regulations 2006.

2.    These Regulations come into operation on 31 January 2006.

3.    In these Regulations -

-�Commission Regulation-� means Commission Regulations (EC) No. 356/2005 of 1 March 2005, as amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1805/2005 of 3 November 2005, and any future Regulation of the Commission made after the making of these Regulations, which amends, extends, replaces or consolidates (with or without modification) the Commission Regulation (as defined herein);

-�Minister-� means the Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources;

-�sea fisheries protection officer-� means an officer of the Minister authorised by the Minister as a sea fisheries protection officer for the purposes of the Fisheries Acts 1959 to 2003 and of these Regulations.

4.    A word or expression that is used in these Regulations, and is also used in the Commission Regulation, has, unless the contrary indication appears, the same meaning in these Regulations as it has in the Commission Regulation.

5.     A sea fisheries protection officer shall have all the powers under Sections 233, 233A and 234 of the Fisheries (Consolidation) Act 1959 (No. 14 of 1959) for the purposes of enforcing the provisions of these Regulations.

6.     The provisions of the Commission Regulation are hereby prescribed and adopted and accordingly any infringement of the Commission Regulation after the commencement of these Regulations shall be an infringement of these Regulations.

7.     In a prosecution for an infringement of these Regulations it shall be for the person charged to establish a defence by reference to any exclusion, qualification or exception to the relevant obligation provided for by these Regulations and it shall be presumed, until the contrary is proved, that there is no such defence in this particular case.

8.     (1)  A person who by act or omission, contravenes any provision of the Commission Regulation shall be guilty of an offence.

(2)  An offence under these Regulations may be prosecuted by the Minister.

(3)  Where an offence under these Regulations has been committed by a body corporate and it is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of any person who, when the offence was committed, was a director, manager, secretary or other officer of the body corporate, or a person 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 guilty of the first-mentioned offence.

(4)  Where the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members, paragraph (3) shall apply in relation to the acts and defaults of a member in connection with the functions of management as if such a member were a director or manager of the body corporate.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the instrument and does not purport to be a legal interpretation)

These Regulations provide for the provisions of Commission Regulation (EC) No. 356/2005 of 1 March 2005, as amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1805/2005 of 3 November 2005, in relation to marking and identification of passive fishing gear and beam trawls.