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12 1945

ELECTRICITY (SUPPLY) (AMENDMENT) ACT, 1945

PART III.

Acquisition and Management of Fisheries.

Acquisition of fisheries and fishing rights.

15. —Whenever application is duly made to the Board either for compensation on account of the termination, restriction, or other interference (whether permanent or temporary) by the Board under this Act of or with a fishery or fishing right or for compensation for injury to a fishery and the Board, after consultation with the Minister for Agriculture, determines that for economic or other reasons it would be more expedient to acquire the fishery or fishing right to which such application relates, the Board shall acquire by agreement or, in default of agreement, compulsorily such fishery or fishing right and such land, way-leaves, and other rights as are, in the opinion of the Board, ancillary to or necessary for the enjoyment of such fishery or fishing right.

Preservation, management, etc., of fisheries by the Board.

16. —(1) Whenever the Board acquires a fishery or fishing right under this Part of this Act or has before the passing of this Act acquired a fishery or fishing right under the Liffey Reservoir Act, 1936 (No. 54 of 1936), the Board may, if they so think fit, preserve such fishery or fishing right, and for that purpose it shall be lawful for the Board to manage and conduct such fishery or fishing right and to do all such things, carry out all such transactions, and fulfil all such functions as shall be necessary or proper for or incidental or ancillary to such preservation, management, and conduct.

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of the powers conferred on the Board by the foregoing subsection of this section, the Board shall, for the purpose of preserving, managing, and conducting a fishery or fishing right in pursuance of the said subsection, have and may exercise the following powers, that is to say:—

(a) the like powers in relation to the acquisition of land and rights over or in respect of land or water, the like powers of interference with land and rights over or in respect of land or water, and the like powers in relation to private roads, ways, and bridges, and artificial water-ways and water-courses as are conferred on them by Part II of this Act for the purpose of carrying out an approved scheme, and

(b) the like powers of closing, diverting, removing, submerging, or otherwise interfering with public roads or bridges as are conferred on them by Part II of this Act for the purpose of carrying out an approved scheme but subject to the provisions contained in this Act in relation to the closing, diverting, removing, submergence of, or other interference with public roads and bridges by the Board, and

(c) power, with the consent of the Minister, to demise by lease or let by way of licence the whole or any part of such fishery or fishing right to such persons, for such period, at such rent, and on such terms and conditions as the Board shall, with the consent aforesaid, think proper.

(3) Section 17 of the Shannon Fisheries Act, 1935 (No. 4 of 1935), shall apply and have effect in respect of moneys received or expended by the Board in the performance of its powers under this section in like manner as it applies and has effect in relation to moneys received or expended by the Board in the performance of the duties mentioned in the said section 17 .

Application of the income of the Board from fisheries.

17. —(1) The income of the Board derived from the performance of the duties imposed on the Board by this Act in relation to fisheries and fishing rights acquired by the Board under this Part of this Act or under the Liffey Reservoir Act, 1936 (No. 54 of 1936), after discharging all expenses incurred by the Board in performing those duties and properly chargeable to income, shall be applied to the following purposes in the following order, that is to say:—

(a) payment of all interest payable in the current year or owing in respect of any previous year to the Minister for Finance on advances made under this Act by the said Minister to the Board in respect of the acquisition of such fisheries and fishing rights;

(b) setting aside such sums as the Board, with the approval of the Minister, shall think proper for reserve fund, extension, and other like purposes relating to the performance of the said duties;

(c) payment of all moneys payable in the current year or owing in respect of any previous year to the Minister for Finance on account of the repayment of the said advances;

(d) appropriation for any other purpose which the Board shall think proper.

Compensation to certain fishery employees and others.

18. —(1) Every person who proves to the satisfaction of the Board or of the arbitrator—

(a) that he was engaged by way of trade or otherwise for profit in fishing in the waters of any river or was employed for reward by any person for such fishing or was both so engaged and so employed, and

(b) that he has suffered loss of profits or loss of earnings by reason of any interference by the Board under this Act with the waters of such river or any fishery therein or fishing right thereover,

shall (subject to the subsequent provisions of this section) be entitled to be paid by the Board compensation in respect of his said loss of profits or earnings or profits and earnings, as the case may be.

(2) The compensation payable to any person under this section shall be calculated as follows, that is to say, for every complete open fishing season during which such person was engaged or employed or both engaged and employed as mentioned in the next preceding subsection of this section, such person shall receive a sum equal to four times the average weekly earnings or wage or earnings and wage received by such person in respect of such engagement or employment during the complete open fishing season next before the interference by the Board mentioned in the said subsection but subject to the overriding limitation that such compensation shall not in any case exceed fifty-two times the said average weekly earnings or wage or earnings and wage, as the case may be.

(3) A person shall not be entitled to any compensation under this section where it is shown to the satisfaction of the arbitrator that, by reason of an undertaking by the Board to continue the employment of such person or for any other reason, such person will suffer no loss or diminution of earnings or employment in consequence of the interference by the Board.

(4) The right to and the amount (if any) of compensation under this section shall be determined under and in accordance with the Acquisition of Land (Assessment of Compensation) Act, 1919, as if such compensation were the price of land compulsorily acquired.

Appointment of ex-officio members of boards of conservators.

19. —(1) Section 6 of the Fisheries (Ireland) Act, 1848, as amended by section 7 of the Fisheries Act, 1925 (No. 32 of 1925), shall not apply in respect of any fishery acquired by the Board under this Part of this Act, and in lieu of the said section 6 as so amended it is hereby enacted that—

(a) if and so long as the Board is the owner, lessee, or occupier of any such fishery which was, on the 1st day of January, 1931, a several or exclusive fishery within the meaning of the said section 6 the following provision shall apply and have effect, that is to say, whenever, on the date on which the fishery rate for any fishery year is struck by the board of conservators for the fishery district in which such fishery is situate, such fishery is valued under the Valuation Acts at not less than fifty pounds, the Board shall be entitled to nominate one person to be, until the next fishery rate is so struck, an ex-officio member, in respect of such fishery of the board of conservators of the district in which such fishery is situate, and

(b) if and so long as the Board is the owner, lessee, or occupier of two or more such fisheries situate in the same fishery district each of which was, on the 1st day of January, 1931, a several or exclusive fishery within the meaning of the said section 6 the following provisions shall apply and have effect, that is to say, whenever, on the date on which the fishery rate for any fishery year is struck by the board of conservators for the said fishery district, such fisheries are valued under the Valuation Acts at valuations amounting in the aggregate to not less than fifty pounds, the Board shall be entitled to nominate one person to be, until the next fishery rate is so struck, an ex-officio member, in respect of such fisheries, of the board of conservators of the district in which such fisheries are situate.

(2) Where the Board is entitled under the foregoing subsection of this section to nominate two or more ex-officio members of a board of conservators, the following provisions shall have effect, that is to say:—

(a) the Board shall be entitled to nominate such number (whether one or more than one) of ex-officio members of such board of conservators as the Board shall think proper, but not exceeding the total number of such members which the Board is entitled under the said subsection to nominate;

(b) every ex-officio member of such board of conservators so nominated by the Board shall be nominated to represent one or more specified fisheries or groups of fisheries in respect of which the Board is entitled under the said subsection to nominate ex-officio members of such board of conservators, but so that the said ex-officio members so nominated shall between them represent all the fisheries or groups of fisheries in respect of which the Board is entitled as aforesaid to nominate ex-officio members of such board of conservators;

(c) every ex-officio member of such board of conservators so nominated by the Board shall have and may exercise at meetings of such board of conservators a number of votes equal to the number (whether one or more than one) of fisheries or groups of fisheries which he is nominated under the next preceding paragraph of this subsection to represent.

(3) A person nominated under this section to be an ex-officio member of a board of conservators shall, subject and without prejudice to the next preceding subsection of this section, have and may exercise as such member all the rights and privileges which are conferred by section 6 of the Fisheries (Ireland) Act, 1848, on a person who is an ex-officio member of a board of conservators under that section.

Powers of certain officers and servants of the Board.

20. —Every officer or servant of the Board authorised in writing by the Minister for Agriculture to exercise the powers conferred by section 24 of the Fisheries Act, 1925 (No. 32 of 1925), shall have and may exercise all or any of the powers conferred by the said section 24 on an officer or servant of a board of conservators authorised in writing by such board to exercise the powers conferred by that section and for that purpose the said section 24 shall be construed and have effect as if officers and servants of the Board authorised as aforesaid were expressly mentioned therein.

Closing of free gaps in weirs.

21. —(1) The Minister for Agriculture may, if he so thinks proper, at any time by order authorise the Board, for the purpose of acquiring statistical information and the purpose of carrying out scientific investigations or for either of those purposes, to close at such times, during such periods, subject to such conditions, and in such manner as he may specify in such order, the free gap in any specified weir owned by the Board in any river in which the Board has acquired a fishery or fishing right under this Part of this Act.

(2) Whenever the Minister for Agriculture by order under this section authorises the Board to close the free gap in a weir, the following provisions shall apply and have effect, that is to say:—

(a) notwithstanding anything contained in the Fisheries Acts, 1842 to 1944, it shall be lawful for the Board to close such free gap under and in accordance with such order;

(b) section 10 of the Fisheries (Ireland) Act, 1845, shall not apply in respect of any obstruction placed in such free gap by the Board under and in accordance with such order.

Variation of weekly close seasons.

22. —The Minister for Agriculture may by order vary as he shall think proper the weekly close season fixed by section 20 of the Salmon Fishery (Ireland) Act, 1863, in respect of any river in which the Board has acquired a fishery or fishing right under this Part of this Act, but the said Minister shall not by any such order increase any such weekly close season to more than seventy-two hours or reduce any such weekly close season to less than forty-eight hours.

Restriction on number of certain fishing licences.

23. —(1) Whenever the Board acquires a fishery or fishing right under this Part of this Act, the Minister for Agriculture may by order, if he so thinks proper, do the following things, that is to say:—

(a) prescribe the maximum number of licences for fishing with drift nets in the tidal waters (within the meaning of the Fisheries Acts, 1842 to 1944) of the river in which such fishery or fishing right is situate which may be issued in any year in which the open season for such fishing begins after the date of such order;

(b) prescribe the maximum number of licences for fishing with draft nets or seines in the said tidal waters which may be issued in any year in which the open season for such fishing begins after the date of such order;

(c) make regulations in relation to the issue of such licences as are mentioned in either of the foregoing paragraphs of this subsection with a view to securing to persons who held such drift net licences or draft net or seine licences (as the case may be) in the year before the date of such order a preferential right to purchase such drift net licences or draft net or seine licences (as the case may be) before the commencement of any open season for fishing under such licences in respect of which the number of such licences is limited by such order.

(2) Whenever the Minister for Agriculture makes under this section an order prescribing the maximum number of licences of any particular kind which may be issued in respect of the tidal waters of any particular river in any particular open season, the number of such licences issued in respect of such tidal waters in any such open season shall not exceed the maximum number so prescribed.

(3) Nothing in this section shall be construed as in any way affecting the powers of the Minister for Agriculture to make orders or bye-laws under the Fisheries Acts, 1842 to 1944.

(4) Where a person is convicted of an offence under the Fisheries Acts, 1842 to 1944, or this Act, such person shall not be entitled to any preferential right to obtain a licence under this section.

Construction of fishing weirs by the Board.

24. —(1) Whenever the Board acquires under this Part of this Act every fishery (if any) and every fishing right (if any) in a river, the Board may, with the consent of the Minister for Agriculture and notwithstanding anything contained in the Fisheries Acts, 1842 to 1944, construct in such river a fishing weir for the purposes of all or any of the fisheries (if any) and fishing rights (if any) so acquired, and may thereafter maintain the fishing weir so constructed.

(2) Whenever the Board acquires under or by virtue of this Act a fishing weir, the Board may, with the consent of the Minister for Agriculture and notwithstanding anything contained in the Fisheries Acts, 1842 to 1944, do either of the following things, that is to say:—

(a) maintain such fishing weir and, for the purposes of such maintenance, reconstruct or repair such fishing weir, or

(b) construct on the site of such fishing weir or on a different site a new fishing weir in lieu of the fishing weir so acquired and thereafter maintain such new fishing weir.

Prohibition of snap nets.

25. —(1) The Minister for Agriculture, if he so thinks fit on the application of the Board, may by order prohibit the issue of licences under the Fisheries Acts, 1842 to 1944, for fishing with a snap net in the tidal waters (within the meaning of those Acts) of any river in which the Board has acquired a fishery or fishing right under this Part of this Act.

(2) Whenever the Minister for Agriculture has made an order under the foregoing subsection of this section, no licence shall be issued under the Fisheries Acts, 1842 to 1944, in contravention of such order.