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14 1959

FISHERIES (CONSOLIDATION) ACT, 1959

Chapter VI.

Supplementary Provisions.

Right of access to vested fisheries.

213. —(1) Any authorised person shall at all times have a right of free access to any vested fishery and shall be entitled, subject to the provisions of this Act, with boats or vehicles to enter on any watercourse or land for the purpose of operating the fishery, and may remove (subject in the case of the foreshore to the consent of the Minister for Industry and Commerce) any obstruction, natural or otherwise, to his passage.

(2) If any person obstructs any authorised person in the exercise of the powers conferred on such authorised person by this section, such person shall be guilty of an offence under this section and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds.

(3) In this section the expression “authorised person” means a person authorised by the Minister to exercise the powers conferred on an authorised person by this section.

(4) Where the normal access to a transferable fishery vested in the Minister was before such vesting through any enclosed premises, yard, garden or land surrounding or adjacent to a dwelling house, the right of free access conferred by subsection (1) of this section shall not be exercisable by way of such premises, yard, garden or land, save where the same are separate from such dwelling house, and were before such vesting used solely in connection with such fishery.

Right of access for exercise of angling rights.

214. —(1) Where a transferable fishery in any water flowing through land surrounding or adjacent to a dwelling house has become vested in the Minister and the angling rights in such water have not been reserved under an angling rights (reservation) order, any person lawfully entitled to fish with rod and line on such water and his paid servants or attendants shall be entitled to pass along the banks of such water for the purpose of such fishing or of going to or returning from such fishing, but for no other purpose.

(2) This section shall not entitle any person to enter any enclosed yard or garden or any buildings.

Liability of Minister for damage by flooding.

215. —No claim shall lie against the Minister for flooding of lands or other consequential damage due to the continued existence of any structure (including a fishing weir and a fishing mill-dam which on the date of vesting formed part of or existed in a fishery vested in the Minister under Chapter II of this Part) unless the Minister shall have increased the height of such structure or shall have closed the openings or gaps therein to an extent to which they could not have been lawfully closed on the said date.

Provisions in relation to mill-dam fisheries.

216. —(1) The following provisions shall have effect in relation to any mill-dam fishery vested in the Minister under Chapter II of this Part, and to the fishing mill-dam by means of part of which such fishery is carried on:—

(a) so long as the Minister makes no alteration, other than repairs to casual defects in those parts of the structure of such dam essential to the carrying on of such fishery, he shall not be liable for any part of the cost of maintaining the mill-dam;

(b) any authorised person shall have a right of free access to such fishery and such right shall extend if necessary to the mill, power-house or other premises adjacent to or connected with such mill-dam, but if the owner or occupier of such mill, power-house or premises offers to the Minister facilities for other reasonable means of access, the Minister shall accept such facilities in lieu of such first mentioned right of access, and shall carry out such works as may be necessary to render the same effective;

(c) the Minister may erect such walls, fences or other structures as he thinks necessary for the protection of such fishery against trespass in such situation as he may require, but where any such walls, fences or other structures may interfere with the access of the owner or occupier to such mill-dam, the Minister shall provide such owner or occupier with the necessary means of getting through or over them;

(d) if the mill, power-house or premises which such mill dam is intended to serve becomes vacant, or if the water impounded by such mill-dam ceases to be used for power purposes, either partly or wholly, the Minister shall nevertheless continue to be entitled to use such fishery, and the provisions of section 117 shall apply.

(2) If any person obstructs any authorised person in the exercise of the powers conferred on such authorised person by this section, such person shall be guilty of an offence under this section and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds.

(3) In this section the expression “authorised person” means a person authorised by the Minister to exercise the powers conferred on an authorised person by this section.

Restrictions on Minister's powers.

217. —Nothing in this Act shall operate to authorise the Minister—

(a) to construct or erect on tidal lands (within the meaning of the Foreshore Act, 1933 (No. 12 of 1933)), any work or structure, other than a fixed engine for the capture of salmon, trout or eels lawfully existing, or for which a certificate granted under section 6 of the Salmon Fishery (Ireland) Act, 1863, existed, in the year 1939, without the consent of the Minister for Industry and Commerce or otherwise than in accordance with the terms and conditions of such consent;

(b) to erect any buildings or structures which may interfere with the amenities of the residence or pleasure grounds of a person who was the owner or occupier of a fishery vested in the Minister under Chapter II of this Part or operate such fishery in such a way as to interfere with such amenities.

Fishing licences in vested fisheries operated by the Minister.

218. —Where any vested fishery is being operated by the Minister under this Part all licences for fishing engines used in such fishery shall be taken out in the name of the Minister.