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26 1937

CONTROL OF PRICES ACT, 1937

PART II.

Prices Commission and Controller of Prices.

Establishment of Prices Commission.

9. —(1) As soon as conveniently may be after the commencement of this Act, there shall be established a Commission (in this Act referred to as the Commission), which shall be known as and styled the Prices Commission, to fulfil the functions assigned to the Commission by this Act.

(2) Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Commission shall consist of three members (in this Act called ordinary members) who shall be nominated from time to time as occasion requires by the Minister.

(3) Every ordinary member shall, unless he sooner dies, resigns or becomes disqualified, hold office for such period, not exceeding five years, as the Minister shall fix at the time of his nomination, but shall be eligible for renomination.

(4) If and whenever an ordinary member is adjudged bankrupt, or makes a composition or arrangement with his creditors, or is sentenced by a court of competent jurisdiction to suffer imprisonment or penal servitude, or ceases to be ordinarily resident in Saorstát Eireann or absents himself from all sittings of the Commission for a period of three months without the permission of the Minister, he shall be disqualified from holding the office of an ordinary member.

(5) Whenever it appears to the Minister that on account of illness or for other sufficient reason an ordinary member of the Commission is temporarily unable to discharge his duties as such member, the Minister may appoint a person to act as an ordinary member for such period (not exceeding the duration of such inability) as he shall think proper, and every person so appointed to act as an ordinary member of the Commission shall during the period for which he is so appointed be an ordinary member of the Commission in the place of such first-mentioned ordinary member.

Additional members of the Commission.

10. —(1) The Minister may from time to time for the purposes of any particular investigation by the Commission appoint such and so many persons (not being ordinary members) to act as additional members of the Commission as he thinks fit.

(2) Every additional member so appointed shall for the purposes of the investigation for which he is appointed be a member of the Commission.

Chairman of the Commission.

11. —(1) The Minister shall appoint one of the ordinary members to be Chairman of the Commission and the ordinary member so appointed shall hold office as such Chairman during the pleasure of the Minister.

(2) Where at any sitting of the Commission the Chairman of the Commission is absent, the members of the Commission present at such sitting shall appoint one of such members to act as Chairman at such sitting.

Remuneration of members of the Commission.

12. —Any member of the Commission may be paid such remuneration and allowances as the Minister, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, may determine.

Restriction on interested person acting as member.

13. —Whenever an investigation is being held under this Act by the Commission into the price of a particular commodity, and any member of the Commission is personally interested in any business selling such commodity, such member shall inform the Minister of the nature and extent of his interest and shall not, unless authorised by the Minister so to do, act as a member of the Commission for the purposes of such investigation.

Validity of proceedings of the Commission.

14. —The proceedings of the Commission shall not be invalidated by reason of the existence of any vacancy amongst the members or any defect in the appointment of any member.

Controller of Prices.

15. —(1) As soon as conveniently may be after the commencement of this Act, the Minister shall appoint a person (in this Act referred to as the Controller) to be known as and styled the Controller of Prices.

(2) The Controller shall hold office upon such terms and be remunerated at such rates and in such manner as the Minister for Finance shall direct.

(3) Whenever the Controller is temporarily absent from duty for any cause, the Commission may nominate an officer of the Commission to perform during such absence the duties of the Controller, and the officer so appointed shall, during such absence, have all the powers of the Controller and be deemed for the purposes of this Act to be the Controller.

Regulations for proceedings of the Commission.

16. —(1) The Commission may from time to time make regulations for the governance of their proceedings and may by such regulations make provision for all or any of the following matters, that is to say:—

(a) the quorum at any sitting of the Commission;

(b) the times and places of the sittings of the Commission;

(c) the persons to whom notice of the sittings of the Commission shall be given;

(d) the form and manner in which submissions shall be made and evidence given to the Commission, and in particular, whether such submissions and evidence shall be given viva voce or in writing;

(e) the attendance for viva voce or cross-examination of persons who have made submissions or given evidence in writing;

(f) the admission or exclusion of any person to or from the sittings of the Commission;

(g) such matters as appear to the Commission to be necessary or expedient for the proper conduct of their business.

(2) Regulations made under this section shall not have any force or effect unless and until they have been approved by the Minister.

(3) Any regulations made under section 17 of the Control of Prices Act, 1932 (No. 33 of 1932), and in force immediately before the commencement of this Act shall be deemed to have been made under this section and may be revoked or amended accordingly and until so revoked and subject to any such amendment shall continue in force.

Powers of Commission.

17. —(1) The Commission shall have all such powers, rights, and privileges for enforcing the attendance of witnesses and examining them on oath (which any member of the Commission is hereby authorised to administer) or otherwise, and for compelling the production of documents as are vested in the High Court, or a judge thereof in respect of the trial of an action, and a summons signed by any one or more members of the Commission shall be equivalent to and have the like effect as a formal process issued by the High Court for enforcing the attendance of witnesses and compelling the production of documents.

(2) If any person—

(a) on being duly summoned as a witness before the Commission makes default in attending, or

(b) being in attendance as a witness refuses to take an oath legally required by the Commission to be taken, or to produce any document in his power and control legally required by the Commission to be produced by him, or to answer any question to which the Commission may legally require an answer, or

(c) does any other thing which would, if the Commission were a court of justice, having power to commit for contempt of court, be contempt of such court,

the Commission may certify the offence of that person under their hands to the High Court and that court may, after such inquiry as it thinks proper to make, punish or take steps for the punishment of that person in like manner as if he had been guilty of contempt of the said court.

(3) A witness before the Commission shall be entitled to the same immunities and privileges as if he were a witness before the High Court.

Notice of investigations by the Commission and submissions by interested persons.

18. —(1) Whenever the Commission hold an investigation under Part III of this Act, the Commission shall cause notice of the holding of such investigation to be published in the Iris Oifigiúil and in such other manner as the Commission think suitable.

(2) On the publication of a notice under the immediately preceding sub-section any person either on his own behalf or in a representative capacity may make a submission to the Commission in relation to the subject matter of the investigation to which such notice relates.

Private sittings of the Commission.

19. —The Commission may, in their absolute discretion, hold any sitting or part of a sitting in private and the reference in the next following section to a private sitting of the Commission shall be construed as a reference to a sitting or part of a sitting of the Commission held in private.

Prohibition on disclosure of information.

20. —(1) Subject to the provisions of this section it shall not be lawful for any person who is a member or an officer of the Commission to disclose any information, available to him only by virtue of the powers of obtaining information conferred upon the Commission or upon an inspector by this Act, to any person other than a member or officer of the Commission concerned with such information in the course of his duties.

(2) It shall not be lawful for any person (other than a member or officer of the Commission) who attends a private sitting of the Commission to disclose to any person any information acquired through being present at such sitting and which is available only by virtue of the powers of obtaining information conferred upon the Commission or an inspector by this Act.

(3) If any person acts in contravention of this section he shall be guilty of an offence under this section and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds or imprisonment for a period of six months or at the discretion of the Court to both such fine and such imprisonment.

(4) Nothing in sub-section (1) of this section shall apply to the disclosure of any information—

(a) to the Minister in a report (not being an annual report) or other communication from the Commission, or

(b) for the purposes of legal proceedings taken or proposed to be taken under this Act.

Annual Reports by the Commission.

21. —The Commission shall, as soon as may be after the close of every year, make to the Minister a general report of the proceedings of the Commission under this Act, and the Minister shall cause every such general report received by him to be laid forthwith before Dáil Eireann.

Continuance of certain existing inquiries.

22. —Where—

(a) (i) the Minister, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by section 23 of the Control of Prices Act, 1932 (No. 33 of 1932), appointed the Commission (in this section referred to as the former Prices Commission) established under section 9 of the said Act to hold a public inquiry for the purposes of section 17 of the Housing (Financial and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1932 (No. 19 of 1932), and

(ii) such public inquiry is pending at the commencement of this Act, or

(b) an investigation under either section 24 or section 41 of the said Control of Prices Act, 1932 , is pending at the commencement of this Act,

such public inquiry or investigation (as the case may be) shall be continued by the Commission and shall be deemed to be a price investigation under Part III of this Act by the Commission, and any acts or things done by the former Prices Commission shall be deemed to have been done by the Commission under this Act.