Statutory Instruments Act, 1947

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Statutory instruments to which this Act primarily applies.

2.—(1) This Act primarily applies to every statutory instrument which-—

(a) is made on or after the 1st day of January, 1948, and

(b) is made by any of the following authorities, namely:—

(i) the President,

(ii) the Government,

(iii) any member of the Government,

(iv) any Parliamentary Secretary,

(v) any person or body, whether corporate or unincorporate, exercising throughout the State any function of government, or discharging throughout the State any public duties in relation to public administration,

(vi) any authority having for the time being power to make rules of court, and

(c) is either—

(i) required by statute to be laid before both or either of the Houses of the Oireachtas, or

(ii) is of such a character as affects the public generally or any particular class or classes of the public, and

(d) is not a statutory instrument which is required by a statute to be published in the Iris Oifigiúil.

(2) (a) If the Attorney-General certifies in writing that, in his opinion, a particular person or body is an authority of the class mentioned in subparagraph (v) of paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of this section, such person or body shall be deemed, for the purposes of the said subsection (1) to be an authority of that class.

(b) If the Attorney-General certifies, in writing that, in his opinion, statutory instruments of a particular class (defined in such manner and by reference to such things as the Attorney-General thinks proper) are of the character described in subparagraph (ii) of paragraph (c) of subsection (1) of this section, such statutory instruments shall be deemed, for the purposes of the said subsection (1), to be statutory instruments of that character.

(3) Whenever—

(i) it is proposed to make a particular statutory instrument which, if made, would be, by virtue of subsection (1) of this section, a statutory instrument to which this Act primarily applies, and

(ii) the Attorney General is of opinion that, by reason of its merely local or personal application or its temporary operation or its limited application or for any other reason, the said statutory instrument, if made, should be exempted from the operation of subsection (1) of section 3 of this Act,

the Attorney General may direct that the said instrument, if made, shall be so exempted, and in that case, the said statutory instrument, if made, shall not be a statutory instrument to which this Act primarily applies.

(4) Whenever the Attorney General is of opinion that statutory instruments (being statutory instruments to which this Act primarily applies by virtue of subsection (1) of this section) of a particular class (defined in such manner and by reference to such things as the Attorney General thinks proper) should, because of their merely local or personal application or their temporary operation or their limited application or for any other reason, be exempted from the operation of subsection (1) of section 3 of this Act, he may direct that all statutory instruments of that class shall be so exempted, and in that case, any statutory instrument of that class made on or after the date of the direction, shall not be a statutory instrument to which this Act primarily applies.

(5) (a) Every certificate or direction given by the Attorney– General under this section shall be published in the Iris Oifigiúil.

(b) Prima facie evidence of any certificate or direction given by the Attorney-General under this section may be given by the production of a copy of the Iris Oifigiúil purporting to contain such certificate or direction.