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14 1959

FISHERIES (CONSOLIDATION) ACT, 1959

PART V.

Rates on Fisheries.

Rates on fisheries.

55. —(1) Every board of conservators shall on or before the 31st day of December in every fishery year to which this section applies strike on all fisheries within its fishery district (which appear in the revised Valuation Lists required under the Valuation Acts to be issued by the Commissioner of Valuation by the 1st day of March immediately preceding the commencement of that fishery year and are not distinguished therein by the Commissioner of Valuation pursuant to section 2 of the Valuation (Ireland) Act, 1854) a rate of such amount per cent. of their valuations as will, with the estimated amount of other income, be sufficient to meet the estimated amount of the board's expenditure for that fishery year.

(2) Every rate struck by a board of conservators under this section shall be subject to confirmation by the Minister who may confirm the same either without modification or with such modification (whether by way of increase or reduction) as he shall think proper.

(3) If a board of conservators fails to strike on or before the 31st day of December in any fishery year to which this section applies a rate for that fishery year the Minister may, if he thinks fit so to do, strike a rate for the district of such board of conservators for such fishery year and in such case the rate so struck by the Minister shall be levied, collected, and recovered by such board of conservators in like manner in all respects as if such rate had been struck by the board and confirmed by the Minister under this section.

(4) Where in any fishery year a board of conservators strike a rate under subsection (1) of this section or the Minister, by reason of the failure of the board of conservators to strike the rate, strikes a rate under subsection (3) of this section for the fishery district of the board of conservators, the board of conservators or the Minister may make such departure, not affecting value, from the particulars, relating to a fishery in that fishery district, contained in the revised Valuation Lists required under the Valuation Acts to be issued by the Commissioner of Valuation by the 1st day of March immediately preceding the commencement of that fishery year, as may be necessary, at the time of making the rate, to enable the board of conservators or the Minister to make a valid rating.

(5) Every rate struck under this section shall be paid by the several persons rated for the same in two moieties on the 1st day of April and the 1st day of August in the fishery year for which the rate is struck, and shall be so paid over and above all or any licence duties paid by such persons under this Act for that or any other fishery year.

(6) Every person who is liable to be rated under this Act in respect of a fishery shall be exempt from liability for any rate leviable by the council of any county, county borough, or urban district in respect of that fishery for any local financial year commencing before 1st day of April, 1965, and no such council shall levy or collect any rate in respect of such fishery for any such local financial year.

(7) If the Minister for Local Government certifies that by reason of the exemption conferred by subsection (6) of this section from liability for rates in respect of fisheries, the amount of the rate which but for this subsection would require to be made and levied upon and in any area for the service of a local financial year commencing before the 1st day of April, 1965, by the council of a county, county borough, or urban district has been increased by an amount greater than one penny in the pound, the Minister shall out of moneys to be from time to time provided by the Oireachtas pay to such council before the end of such local financial year an amount equal to the sum which would be produced by a rate upon and in such area equivalent to the amount in the pound by which such increase exceeds one penny in the pound.

(8) This section applies to every fishery year commencing before the 1st day of October, 1964.

Valuations by reference to which fishery rates are to be struck, and provisions in relation to appeals against valuations of fisheries.

56. —Where in any fishery year a board of conservators strike a rate under section 55 or the Minister, by reason of the failure of the board of conservators to strike the rate, strikes a rate under that section for the fishery district of the board of conservators, the board of conservators or the Minister shall make the rate according to the valuations appearing in the revised Valuation List required under the Valuation Acts to be issued by the Commissioner of Valuation by the 1st day of March immediately preceding the commencement of that fishery year, and the board of conservators may levy, collect and recover any sum due on account of any rate so made, notwithstanding any pending appeal or notice of appeal under the Valuation Acts with respect to valuation but where the valuation of any fishery is altered on appeal, the board of conservators—

(a) shall, if the valuation is decreased, repay any sum paid in respect of the rate in excess of the sum which would have been payable if the valuation had originally stood as altered on appeal, and

(b) may, if the valuation is increased, recover as arrears of the rate, an amount equal to the difference between the sum payable in respect of the rate as made and the sum which would have been payable in respect of the rate if the valuation had originally stood as altered on appeal.

Amendment of fishery rates.

57. —(1) Where a fishery rate on a fishery has been struck under section 55 in a particular fishery year, the board of conservators in whose fishery district the fishery is situate may, but not later than the expiration of the next following fishery year, make such amendments in the rate as are necessary to correct occupiers' names, misdescriptions and clerical, arithmetical and other errors therein.

(2) Whenever a board of conservators propose to make an amendment of a rate on a fishery under this section—

(a) the board of conservators shall serve by post notice of the proposed amendment on any person who is the occupier of the fishery,

(b) the notice shall contain an intimation that written objections to the proposed amendment may be sent to the board of conservators within seven days after the posting of the notice,

(c) before making the proposed amendment, the board of conservators shall consider the objections (if any) received as the result of the notice.

(3) A board of conservators shall make such refunds or give such credits (as the case may require) in respect of fishery rate and shall be entitled to make such recoveries of fishery rates as may be from time to time appropriate in consequence of any amendment under this section.

Liability for fishery rate.

58. —The person liable to pay a fishery rate in respect of a fishery shall be the occupier thereof.

Collection and recovery of fishery rate.

59. —(1) Fishery rate payable to a board of conservators shall be collected by such persons as the board may from time to time appoint, adequate security being taken by the board from the persons so appointed for the duly accounting for the rate collected, and the costs of the collection of the rate shall be part of the expenses of the board.

(2) Fishery rate payable to a board of conservators may be recovered at the suit of the clerk of the board of conservators as a simple contract debt in any court of competent jurisdiction.

(3) Where any person (in this subsection referred to as the rated person) rated in respect of a fishery for fishery rate fails to pay any moiety of such fishery rate within one month after the date on which such moiety is required by subsection (5) of section 55 to be paid, such moiety shall be recoverable (at the option of the person entitled by law to collect and recover it) from the rated person or from any person who, when such fishery rate was made or at any subsequent time, held, used or occupied the said fishery, and, if such last-mentioned person is a tenant of the rated person, he may, unless the contract of tenancy provides for the payment of fishery rate by the tenant, deduct the amount of any fishery rate so recovered from him from any rent payable to the rated person.

Payments by Minister in lieu of fishery rate.

60. —(1) No fishery rate shall be payable by the Minister in respect of any vested (Part XII) fishery.

(2) Subject to the provisions of this section the Minister may, if he so thinks fit, in respect of each vested (Part XII) fishery, as on and from the payment day next following the date of vesting, pay in any fishery year to the board of conservators for the fishery district in which such fishery is situate in lieu of fishery rate, a half-yearly sum calculated as a moiety of the fishery rate for the current fishery year on the rateable valuation existing at the date when the fishery rate is made.

(3) Where a vested (Part XII) fishery is for the time being an unused fishery (within the meaning of Part XII) no payment in lieu of fishery rate shall be made by the Minister in respect of such fishery after the commencement of the fishery year next after the date on which the Minister gives notice to the board of conservators within whose fishery district such fishery is situate of his intention to refrain from using such fishery.

(4) Where a vested (Part XII) fishery which has ceased to be worked by the Minister is subsequently worked by the Minister, payment in lieu of fishery rate may be made on and from the payment day next following the date on which such fishery is subsequently worked.

(5) Where a vested (Part XII) fishery is leased by the Minister under Part XII, no payment in lieu of fishery rate shall be made by the Minister in respect of such fishery for any period during which any person is under an obligation to pay fishery rate in respect of such fishery.

(6) For the purposes of this section each of the following dates in each year shall be a payment day—

(a) the 1st day of April;

(b) the 1st day of August.

Fishery rates on leased fisheries.

61. —(1) Whenever the Minister grants a lease of a fishery under Part XII, he may, if he so thinks fit, cause to be inserted in such lease a covenant by the Minister to the following effect, namely, that, if the amount paid by the lessee as fishery rate in respect of such fishery for any fishery year falling within the term granted by such lease exceeds the appointed amount, the Minister will pay to the lessee a sum equal to the excess.

(2) In this section the expression “the appointed amount” means, in relation to a fishery which is the subject of a lease under Part XII, the sum of the following:—

(a) the amount (hereinafter referred to as the standard amount) payable by the occupier as fishery rate or by the Minister in lieu of fishery rate in respect of such fishery for the fishery year current at the date on which such lease is granted or, if the fishery rate for that fishery year for the fishery district in which such fishery is situate has not been made before the said date, the immediately preceding fishery year, and

(b) one-twentieth of the standard amount.

(3) Where—

(a) a judgment of a competent court has been obtained by a board of conservators against the lessee of a fishery, the subject of a lease under Part XII, for any fishery rate due in respect of such fishery, and

(b) the Minister is satisfied that such lessee has no goods which could be taken in execution under any process of such court,

the following provisions shall have effect:—

(i) the Minister may, if he so thinks fit, pay to such board of conservators a sum not exceeding the amount of such fishery rate and any costs and expenses incurred by such board of conservators in relation to the obtaining and attempted enforcement of such judgment,

(ii) any sum so paid shall be a debt due by such lessee to the Minister and may be recovered as a simple contract debt in a court of competent jurisdiction.

Grants to certain boards of conservators.

62. —(1) In every fishery year, the Minister shall, out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas, pay to every board of conservators within whose district there are during that year or part thereof any special tidal waters an amount equal to such percentage of the sum which was on the 1st day of January, 1933, the total rateable valuation of the fisheries in such tidal waters as was fixed for the purpose of the rate leviable for such year on the other fisheries in such district under section 55.

(2) If the Minister is satisfied that in any fishery year the receipts (including the moneys payable in such year under subsection (1) of this section) of any board of conservators within whose district there are during that year or part thereof any special tidal waters will be insufficient to defray the expenditure to be incurred by such board in such year, he may, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, pay to such board out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas a grant not exceeding the estimated deficit.

Suspended provisions as to rates on fisheries.

63. —(1) Subsections (2), (3), (4) and (5) of this section shall not have effect during any fishery year to which section 55 applies by virtue of subsection (8) thereof.

(2) The occupier of every fishery in a fishery district, which is entered on the Valuation List prepared under the Valuation Acts as a rateable hereditament, shall in each year pay to the board of conservators for that fishery district as an annual rate, in two equal half yearly gales, on the 1st day of February and the 1st day of July in that year, such sum, in addition to the licence duties to be paid for fishing engines used in fishing that fishery, as shall be equal to the amount of the difference between the sums paid by him for such licence duties and the annual sum of ten per cent. on the rateable valuation of that fishery, subject to such reduction of that percentage as may, from time to time, be made by that board of conservators under subsection (3) of this section.

(3) The board of conservators of a fishery district may, with the approval of the Minister, reduce in respect of that fishery district the percentage specified in subsection (2) of this section, and any such reduction shall have effect on and from the 1st day of January in the then succeeding year.

(4) A rate payable to a board of conservators under this section may be recovered at the suit of the clerk of the board of conservators as a simple contract debt in any court of competent jurisdiction.

(5) A rate payable to a board of conservators under this section shall be collected by such persons as the board may from time to time appoint, adequate security being taken by the board from the persons so appointed for the duly accounting for the rate collected, and the costs of the collection of the rate shall be part of the expenses of the board.