S.I. No. 207/1968 - Merchant Shipping (Load Lines) (Transitional Provisions) Regulations, 1968.

S.I. No. 207 of 1968.

MERCHANT SHIPPING (LOAD LINES) (TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS) REGULATIONS, 1968.

I, Erskine H. Childers, Minister for Transport and Power, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 31 (2) of the Merchant Shipping (Load Lines) Act, 1968 (No. 17 of 1968), hereby make the following regulations :

1. (1) These Regulations may be cited as the Merchant Shipping (Load Lines) (Transitional Provisions) Regulations, 1968.

(2) These Regulations shall come into operation on the 4th day of October, 1968.

2. In these Regulations—

"the Act" means the Merchant Shipping (Load Lines) Act, 1968 (No. 17 of 1968);

"the Act of 1933" means the Merchant Shipping (Safety and Load Line Conventions) Act, 1933 (No. 42 of 1933);

"the 1930 Convention" means the International Load Line Convention, 1930;

"1933 Act certificate" means a load line certificate in force at the commencement of the Act and issued under the Act of 1933, other than a certificate issued in respect of a ship not registered in the State under section 49 (1) of the Act of 1933;

"load line rules" means the load line rules for the time being in force under the Act;

"the Minister" means the Minister for Transport and Power.

3. For the purpose of the transition from the law in force immediately before the commencement of the Act to the provisions of the Act, the provisions of the Act shall have effect subject to the transitional provisions contained in the following Regulations.

4. (1) The following provisions shall have effect in relation to a ship (whether or not registered in the State) which has been surveyed, assigned freeboards and marked in accordance with the Act of 1933 and the rules made thereunder, and in respect of which a 1933 Act certificate is in force, namely:

(a) the ship shall be deemed to have been duly surveyed and marked in accordance with the load line rules;

(b) the freeboards so assigned to the ship shall be deemed to have been assigned under the load line rules, and

(c) the certificate shall be deemed to have been issued under section 7, or section 16 of the Act, as may be appropriate, and to be the appropriate certificate for the purposes of the Act.

(2) Subject to any cancellation under the load line rules, a 1933 Act certificate shall continue in force until—

(a) the date of expiry specified in the certificate, or

(b) the 4th day of October, 1970, whichever is the earlier.

(3) The provisions as to cancellation of certificates in the load line rules shall, except as therein specifically provided, apply to a 1933 Act certificate in the same manner as they apply to a certificate issued under those rules.

(4) The provisions of the Act and of the load line rules relating to periodical inspections and the extension of the period of validity of load line certificates shall not apply to a ship in respect of which a 1933 Act certificate is in force or to such a certificate.

5. (1) On the expiry after the commencement of the Act of a 1933 Act certificate relating to a ship, an Assigning Authority may, if the conditions in paragraph (2) are satisfied, issue a load line certificate, and, subject to the provisions of this Regulation, the Act shall apply in respect of the ship as if—

(a) the ship had been duly surveyed and marked in accordance with the load line rules, and

(b) the freeboards specified in the 1933 Act certificate had been assigned to the ship in accordance with those rules.

(2) The conditions referred to in paragraph (1) of this Regulation are as follows, namely :

(a) an application shall be made to an Assigning Authority by or on behalf of the owner of the ship for the inspection of the ship and the issue of the new certificate,

(b) the Assigning Authority shall be satisfied as a result of an inspection of the ship by a surveyor appointed by that Authority that—

(i) the fittings and appliances for the protection of openings, the guard rails, the freeing ports and the means of access to the crew's quarters in the ship are in an efficient condition, and

(ii) no changes have been made or have taken place in the hull or superstructures of the ship such as to render no longer accurate the data on the basis of which freeboards were assigned to the ship, and

(c) there has been no alteration in the marks on the ship as described in the 1933 Act certificate.

(3) The certificate to be issued by virtue of this Regulation in respect of a ship shall be determined in accordance with section 7 or section 16 of the Act, as may be appropriate, and shall be deemed to be the appropriate certificate for the purposes of the Act, and the Act shall apply as if the certificate had been issued under the applicable section thereof.

(4) The period of validity of a certificate issued by virtue of this Regulation shall not exceed 5 years from the completion of the last survey of the ship under the Act of 1933.

(5) The provisions of the Act and the load line rules relating to the recording of particulars for the purposes of the rules relating to conditions of assignment shall not apply to a ship in respect of which a certificate is issued in pursuance of this Regulation.

(6) In this Regulation "Assigning Authority" means the Minister or any person authorised by the Minister to issue a load line certificate.

6. (1) Subject to paragraph (2), in the case of a ship which immediately before the commencement of the Act was, by virtue of an exemption granted under section 37 (2) (b) of the Act of 1933, exempted from Part II of the Act of 1933, the Act shall not have effect in relation to the ship for so long as the said exemption would have continued in force if the Act had not been enacted.

(2) An exemption described in paragraph (1) may be revoked by the Minister and in no case shall such an exemption remain in force after the 4th day of October, 1970.

(3) The provisions of sections 21 and 22 of the Act (which relate to exemption certificates) shall not apply in relation to a ship to which an exemption described in paragraph (1) applies.

7. (1) A load line certificate issued in pursuance of the 1930 Convention in respect of a ship which is not—

(a) registered in the State, or

(b) a ship to which section 13 of the Act applies—

being a certificate which would, by virtue of complying with the conditions specified in Article 4 of the Merchant Shipping (Validity of Safety Convention and Load Line Convention Certificates) Regulations, 1933 (S.R. & O., No. 175 of 1933), immediately prior to the commencement of the Act have been recognised as a valid Load Line Convention certificate under section 49 (2) of the Act of 1933, shall in those circumstances be recognised as a valid Convention certificate for the purposes of the Act until the date of expiry specified in the certificate or the 4th day of October, 1970, whichever is the earlier.

(2) Sections 17 and 18 of the Act shall apply in relation to a ship in respect of which a certificate referred to in paragraph (1) is produced in the same manner as they apply in relation to a ship to which section 13 of the Act applies.

8. The Act and the load line rules shall apply in relation to a load line certificate issued in pursuance of the 1930 Convention in respect of a ship to which section 13 of the Act applies as if the certificate had been an International Load Line Certificate (1966) until—

(a) the date of expiry specified in the certificate, or

(b) the expiry of two years from the date on which the country in which the ship is registered is declared to be a Convention country within the meaning of the Act,

whichever is the earlier.

9. (1) Notwithstanding the repeal of section 49 (1) of the Act of 1933, the Minister may, at the request of the Government of a country to which the 1930 Convention applied for the purposes of that Act immediately before the date of commencement of the Act, issue a Load Line Convention Certificate under that Convention in respect of a ship of not less than 150 tons gross tonnage registered in that country if he is satisfied that, if the ship had been registered in the State, he could, immediately before that date, have properly issued a Load Line Convention Certificate in respect of that ship under the Act of 1933.

(2) Where a certificate is issued by virtue of this Regulation at such a request it shall contain a statement that it has been so issued.

(3) Nothing in this Regulation shall authorise the issue of a certificate mentioned in paragraph (1) after the 4th day of October, 1970.

10. (1) Subject to paragraphs (2) and (3), a load line certificate for the time being in force in respect of a ship not registered in the State which immediately before the commencement of the Act had, by virtue of an Order made under section 55 (2) of the Act of 1933, the same effect for the purposes of Part II of the Act of 1933 as a Saorstát Éireann load line certificate, shall for the purposes of the Act have the same effect as an Irish load line certificate.

(2) This Regulation shall not apply in relation to a ship registered in or flying the flag of a Convention country within the meaning of the Act.

(3) This Regulation shall cease to have effect on the 4th day of October, 1970.

GIVEN under my Official Seal, this 30th day of September, 1968.

ERSKINE H. CHILDERS,

Minister for Transport and Power.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.

These Regulations are made under section 31 (2) of the Merchant Shipping (Load Lines) Act, 1968 and contain transitional provisions consequent upon the repeal by that Act of the provisions of Part II of the Merchant Shipping (Safety and Load Line Conventions) Act, 1933 , relating to load lines. The principal matter for which provision is made is the continuation in force for a period not exceeding two years of load line certificates issued and exemptions granted under the Act of 1933.