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3 1938

SHOPS (HOURS OF TRADING) ACT, 1938

PART II.

Weekly Half-Holidays in Shops.

Exempted businesses for purposes of Part II.

16. —(1) Each of the following businesses shall be an exempted business for the purposes of this Part of this Act, that is to say:—

(a) subject to the operation of an order made by the Minister under sub-section (2) of this section, any business specified in the Third Schedule to this Act;

(b) any business declared by an order, made by the Minister under sub-section (3) of this section and for the time being in force, to be an exempted business for the purposes of this Part of this Act.

(2) The Minister may, whenever and so often as he thinks fit, by order under this sub-section declare that any business specified in the Third Schedule to this Act shall cease to be an exempted business for the purposes of this Part of this Act and upon the coming into force of such order such business shall cease to be an exempted business for the said purposes.

(3) The Minister may, whenever and so often as he thinks fit, by order under this sub-section declare that any business shall be an exempted business for the purposes of this Part of this Act.

(4) The Minister may by order under this sub-section revoke any order made by him under the immediately preceding sub-section.

Scheduled businesses for purposes oft Part Π.

17. —Each of the following businesses shall be a scheduled business for the purposes of this Part of this Act, that is to say:—

(a) any excepted business;

(b) any business which is for the time being an exempted business for the purposes of this Part of this Act.

“The weekly half-holiday.”

18. —(1) The proprietor of every shop shall specify in a notice (in this section referred to as a half-holiday notice), which shall be in the prescribed form and be kept affixed in a prominent place in such shop, the week-day in each week on which he proposes to close such shop not later than the hour of 1 p.m. and shall send to the sergeant in charge of the Gárda Síochána station nearest to such shop a copy of such half-holiday notice before the commencement of the first week to which such notice relates.

(2) The proprietor of a shop may change the weekday specified in a half-holiday notice, but shall not do so—

(a) in case such shop is situate in a county borough oftener than once in any period of three months, nor

(b) in any case unless he has given to the sergeant in charge of the Gárda Síochána station nearest to such shop, not later than seven days before he makes such change, notice of his intention to do so and of the proposed change.

(3) If the proprietor of a shop acts in contravention (whether by omission or commission) of this section, such proprietor shall be guilty of an offence under this section.

(4) In this Act the expression “weekly half-holiday” when used in relation to a particular shop in respect of a particular week means the weekday in such week specified by the proprietor of such shop in pursuance of sub-section (1) of this section.

(5) This section shall not apply to any shop in which either the only business carried on therein is a scheduled business or all the businesses carried on therein are scheduled businesses.

Closing of shops at 1 p.m. on weekly half-holidays.

19. —(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, it shall not be lawful for the proprietor of any shop to keep such shop open for the serving of customers later than the hour of 1 p.m. on the weekday in any week which is in relation to such shop the weekly half-holiday in that week.

(2) Where a shop is closed during the whole day on the occasion of a public holiday in any week and that day is not the weekly half-holiday in respect of such shop in that week, it shall be lawful for the proprietor of such shop to keep such shop open for the serving of customers after the hour of 1 p.m. on the weekly half-holiday immediately preceding or immediately succeeding that public holiday.

(3) The Minister may, whenever and so often as he thinks fit, by order under this sub-section—

(a) declare that a particular area (being an area frequented as a holiday resort during certain seasons of the year) specified or delimited in such order shall be an exempted area for the purposes of such order, and

(b) suspend during a specified period within such season in respect of all shops of a particular class (defined in such manner and by reference to such things as the Minister thinks proper) situate in such exempted area the operation of sub-section (1) of this section.

(4) The provisions of this section shall not apply to any shop in which either the only business carried on therein is a scheduled business or all the businesses carried on therein are scheduled businesses.

(5) Where—

(a) any excepted business is carried on in a shop, and

(b) any other business (not being a scheduled business) is carried on in such shop,

nothing contained in this section shall render it unlawful for the proprietor of such shop to keep such shop open for the serving of customers at any time on the weekday in any week which is in relation to such shop the weekly half-holiday, if while such shop is so kept open no transaction (other than a transaction connected with such excepted business) is carried out therein.

(6) If the proprietor of any shop acts in contravention of this section such proprietor shall be guilty of an offence under this section.

(7) Where the proprietor of a shop is charged with an offence under this section and it is proved that a customer was being served in such shop after the hour of 1 p.m. on the weekly half-holiday in any week, it shall be a good defence to such charge for such proprietor to prove that—

(a) the hour at which such customer was being served was not later than 1.15 p.m. on such weekly half-holiday and that such customer was in such shop before the hour of 1 p.m. on such weekly half-holiday, or

(b) in case such shop is a barber's or hairdresser's establishment, that the hour at which such customer was being attended to or waiting to be attended to was not later than 2 p.m. on such weekly half-holiday and that such customer was in such shop before 1 p.m. on such weekly half-holiday, or

(c) that such proprietor had reasonable grounds for believing that the article with which such customer was being served was required in the case of illness.

Retail trading elsewhere than in shops.

20. —(1) The provisions of this Part of this Act shall extend to any place where or vehicle from which any retail trade or business is carried on as if that place or vehicle were a shop and as if in relation to any such place or vehicle the person by whom the retail trade or business is carried on were the proprietor of a shop.

(2) Nothing in this section shall—

(a) be construed as rendering unlawful the attendance of a barber or hairdresser on a customer in the customer's residence or the holding of an auction sale of private effects in a private dwelling house, or

(b) apply to the sale of newspapers.