First Previous (PART III Communication of information to the prejudice of the safety or preservation of the State)

1 1963

OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT, 1963

PART IV

Legal proceedings and supplementary provisions

Offences.

13. —(1) A person who contravenes or attempts to contravene any provision of this Act shall, without prejudice to any other enactment, be guilty of an offence under this Act.

(2) A person shall be triable summarily for any offence under this Act and on conviction shall be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to both.

(3) A person shall be triable on indictment for any offence under section 9 or for any offence under Part II committed in a manner prejudicial to the safety or preservation of the State, and on conviction shall be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or to penal servitude for a term not exceeding seven years.

Restriction on prosecution.

14. —(1) Proceedings for any offence under this Act shall not be instituted except by or with the consent of the Attorney General.

(2) Before such consent is obtained a person charged with an offence under section 9 may be arrested, or a warrant for his arrest may be issued and executed, and he may be remanded in custody or on bail, but not in any case to a date later than eight days after he has been first remanded, and no further proceedings shall be taken until such consent is obtained.

Arrest without warrant.

15. —A person who is found contravening section 9 or who is reasonably suspected of having, or having attempted to, or being about to, contravene that section may be apprehended and detained in the same manner as a person who is found committing a felony.

Search warrants.

16. —(1) On his being satisfied that reasonable grounds exist for suspecting that there has been or is about to be a contravention of section 9 a justice of the District Court may issue a warrant to any member of the Garda Síochána to search any premises, place, vessel or aircraft.

(2) Where an officer of the Garda Síochána not below the rank of chief superintendent has reasonable grounds for believing that in the interest of the State immediate action is necessary, he may issue a search warrant having the same effect as a search warrant issued by a justice of the District Court.

(3) A search warrant issued under this section shall be expressed and shall operate to authorise a member of the Garda Síochána (not below the rank of inspector) named in the warrant together with any other persons named in the warrant and any other members of the Garda Síochána to enter, within one week from the date of the warrant and if necessary by force, any premises, place, vessel or aircraft named in the warrant and search the same and every person found therein and seize any document or thing found therein or on such person which such member reasonably believes to be evidence of or to relate, directly or indirectly, to a contravention or intended contravention of section 9.

(4) A member of the Garda Síochána acting under the authority of a search warrant issued under this section may—

(a) demand the name and address of any person found in the premises, place, vessel or aircraft named in the warrant, and

(b) arrest without warrant any such person who refuses to give his name and address, or gives a false name or a false address.

(5) Any document seized under this section may be removed and retained for so long as the Minister for Justice thinks proper, and any other thing so seized may be removed and retained for a period of one month from the date of its seizure or, if proceedings are commenced within such period for an offence under this Act, until the conclusion of the proceedings, and thereafter the provisions of the Police (Property) Act, 1897, shall apply to the thing so seized in the same manner as that Act applies to property which has come into the possession of the Garda Síochána in the circumstances mentioned in that Act.

(6) Every person who obstructs a member of the Garda Síochána or other person acting under the authority of a search warrant issued under this section shall be guilty of an offence.

Obtaining information as to suspected offences.

17. —(1) Where an officer of the Garda Síochána not below the rank of chief superintendent has reasonable grounds for suspecting that an offence under section 9 has been committed and for believing that any person is able to furnish information as to the offence or suspected offence, he may apply to the Minister for Justice for permission to exercise the powers conferred by this subsection and, if such permission is granted, he may authorise a member of the Garda Síochána not below the rank of inspector to require the person believed to be able to furnish information to give any information in his power relating to the offence or suspected offence and if a person required in pursuance of such an authorisation to give information fails to comply with the requirement or knowingly gives false information he shall be guilty of an offence.

(2) Where any such officer has reasonable grounds for believing that in the interest of the State immediate action is necessary, he may exercise the powers conferred by subsection (1) without applying for or being granted the permission of the Minister for Justice, but if he does so shall forthwith report the circumstances to the Minister.

Power to require the production of telegrams.

18. —(1) Where the Minister for Justice is of opinion that such a course is expedient in the interest of the State, he may, by warrant under his hand, require any person who owns or controls any telegraphic cable or wire, or any apparatus for wireless telegraphy, used for the sending or receipt of telegrams to or from any place out of the State, to produce to him, or to any person named in the warrant, the originals and transcripts, either of all telegrams, or of telegrams of any specified class or description, or of telegrams sent from or addressed to any specified person or place, sent or received to or from any place out of the State by means of any such cable, wire or apparatus, and all other papers relating to any such telegram as aforesaid, and that person shall comply with the requirement.

(2) In this section “telegram” has the same meaning as in the Telegraph Act, 1869, and “wireless telegraphy” has the same meaning as in the Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1926.