Vehicle Clamping Act 2015
Interpretation | ||
2. In this Act— | ||
“Act of 1961” means Road Traffic Act 1961 ; | ||
“Act of 2005” means Railway Safety Act 2005 ; | ||
“airport” means a State Airport (within the meaning of the State Airports Act 2004 ) or another airport for which the Minister may make bye-laws under section 15 of that Act; | ||
“authorised person” means a person or a class of persons appointed under section 23 ; | ||
“clamp” means a device or appliance designed or adapted for fixing to a vehicle for the purpose of preventing it from being driven or otherwise put in motion; | ||
“clamping” means fixing a clamp to a parked vehicle; | ||
“clamping activities” means— | ||
(a) clamping, | ||
(b) removing a clamp from a vehicle, | ||
(c) relocating a vehicle, or | ||
(d) imposing charges— | ||
(i) as a condition for removing a clamp from a vehicle, or | ||
(ii) in respect of the relocation of a vehicle; | ||
“clamping appeals officer” means a person designated by the NTA under section 21 ; | ||
“clamping notice” means a notice affixed to a vehicle in accordance with section 13 ; | ||
“clamping operator” means a person who is authorised by a parking controller to carry out clamping activities on behalf of the parking controller and includes an employee of a clamping operator or any other person engaged by a clamping operator to carry out such activities on his or her behalf and, in respect of clamping activities carried out under section 101B, includes a clamping officer (within the meaning of that section); | ||
“clamping place” means a statutory clamping place or a non-statutory clamping place, or both, as the case may be; | ||
“clamping regulations” means regulations made under section 10 ; | ||
“clamp release charge” means a charge for the removal of a clamp fixed to an unlawfully or a wrongfully parked vehicle; | ||
“code of practice” means a code of practice established under section 12 (1); | ||
“enactment” includes an instrument made under an enactment; | ||
“fishery harbour centre” has the meaning assigned to it in the Fishery Harbour Centres Act 1968 ; | ||
“harbour” has the meaning assigned to it in the Harbours Act 1996 ; | ||
“local authority” has the meaning assigned to it in the Local Government Act 2001 ; | ||
“Minister” means Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport; | ||
“non-statutory clamping place” means a place, other than a statutory clamping place, where clamping activities are in operation; | ||
“NTA” means National Transport Authority; | ||
“park”, in relation to a vehicle, has the meaning assigned to it in section 3 of the Act of 1961; | ||
“parking controller”, in relation to a clamping place, means the person who as regards that clamping place is responsible for enforcement of the law or rules applicable to parking in that place, but does not include a member of the Garda Síochána or a traffic warden authorised in that behalf; | ||
“prescribe” means prescribe by regulations; | ||
“public road” has the meaning assigned to it by section 3 of the Act of 1961; | ||
“relevant charge” means a clamp release charge or a relocation charge or both; | ||
“relocating”, in relation to a wrongfully or an unlawfully parked vehicle, means moving the vehicle from the place where it is parked (whether or not a clamp has been fixed to it before or after its relocation) to another place; | ||
“relocation charge” means a charge for relocating an unlawfully or wrongfully parked vehicle to another place; | ||
“section 101B” means section 101B (inserted by section 32 ) of the Act of 1961; | ||
“signage regulations” means regulations made under section 11 ; | ||
“statutory body” means, as the case may be, an airport, Coras Iompair Éireann, the Railway Procurement Agency, a harbour or a fishery harbour centre or a body established under statute having charge of a clamping place specified under section 5 ; | ||
“statutory clamping place” means— | ||
(a) a public road where clamping activities are carried out in accordance with section 101B, | ||
(b) an airport where clamping activities are carried out under bye-laws made under section 15 (3)(o) of the State Airports Act 2004 , | ||
(c) land belonging to or occupied by Coras Iompair Éireann where clamping activities are carried out under bye-laws made under section 22 (1)(ee) (ii) (inserted by section 34 (c)) of the Transport Act 1950 , | ||
(d) a fishery harbour centre where clamping activities are carried out under bye-laws made under section 4 (2)(aa) (inserted by section 35 (a)) of the Fishery Harbour Centres Act 1968 , | ||
(e) a harbour where clamping activities are carried out under bye-laws made under section 42 (1A)(b) (inserted by section 36 (c)) of the Harbours Act 1996 , | ||
(f) a place where clamping activities are carried out under section 66A (inserted by section 134 of the Act of 2005) of the Transport (Railway Infrastructure) Act 2001 , and | ||
(g) such other places as may be specified by the Minister under section 5 where clamping activities are carried out under an enactment; | ||
“traffic warden” has the meaning assigned to it in the Local Authorities (Traffic Wardens) Act 1975 ; | ||
“unlawful”, in relation to a vehicle parked in a statutory clamping place, means a vehicle that is parked in contravention of an enactment; | ||
“vehicle” means a mechanically propelled vehicle (within the meaning of section 3 of the Act of 1961) a trailer or semi-trailer or a combination of two or more of them; | ||
“website”, in relation to the NTA, means a website maintained by the NTA on the internet; | ||
“wrongful”, in relation to a vehicle parked in a clamping place, means— | ||
(a) where the clamping place is a non-statutory clamping place, the vehicle is parked in contravention of the terms and conditions or restrictions or prohibitions applicable to parking in the place concerned, or | ||
(b) where the clamping place is a statutory clamping place under the control of a statutory body, the charge imposed for parking the vehicle, permitted to be fixed under an enactment, is not paid and the failure to pay the charge does not constitute a contravention of an enactment. |