Air Navigation (Eurocontrol) Act, 1963

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Number 15 of 1963.

AIR NAVIGATION (EUROCONTROL) ACT, 1963.

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

Number 15 of 1963.

AIR NAVIGATION (EUROCONTROL) ACT, 1963.

AN ACT TO ENABLE EFFECT TO BE GIVEN TO THE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION RELATING TO CO-OPERATION FOR THE SAFETY OF AIR NAVIGATION SIGNED AT BRUSSELS ON THE 13th DAY OF DECEMBER, 1960, AND TO PROVIDE FOR MATTERS (INCLUDING PAYMENTS AND CHARGES) RELATING TO THAT CONVENTION AND FOR THOSE AND OTHER PURPOSES TO AMEND AND EXTEND THE AIR NAVIGATION AND TRANSPORT ACTS, 1936 TO 1961. [26th June, 1963.]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:

Short title, collective citation and commencement.

1.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Air Navigation (Eurocontrol) Act, 1963.

(2) This Act, in so far as it amends the Air Navigation and Transport Acts, 1936 to 1961, may be cited together therewith as the Air Navigation and Transport Acts, 1936 to 1963.

(3) This Act shall come into operation on such day or days as, by order or orders made by the Minister under this section, may be fixed therefor either generally or with reference to any particular purpose or provision and different days may be so fixed for different purposes and different provisions.

Definitions.

2.—(1) In this Act—

“the Agency” means the Air Traffic Services Agency comprised in the Organisation;

“the Convention” means the International Convention relating to Co-operation for the Safety of Air Navigation signed at Brussels on the 13th day of December, 1960;

“the Minister” means the Minister for Transport and Power;

“the Organisation” means the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol) established by the Convention and references to the Organisation include references to the Permanent Commission for the Safety of Air Navigation comprised in the Organisation and to the Agency;

“the Principal Act” means the Air Navigation and Transport Act, 1936 .

(2) References in this Act to the State shall be construed as including references to the territorial waters adjacent to the State.

Status and privileges of Organisation and privileges of its personnel.

3.—(1) The Organisation shall have the legal capacity of a body corporate and anything which may be required or authorised by law to be done by or to the Organisation may be done by or to the Agency on behalf of the Organisation.

(2) The Organisation shall be entitled to—

(a) the like exemption or relief from taxes and rates, other than taxes on the importation of goods or taxes or duties which form part of the price of goods sold, as is accorded to a foreign sovereign state,

(b) exemption, subject to compliance with such conditions as the Revenue Commissioners may prescribe, from taxes on the importation of goods directly imported by the Organisation for its official use in the State or for exportation, or on the importation of any publications of the Organisation directly imported by it, and

(e) exemption from prohibitions and restrictions on importation or exportation in the case of goods directly imported or exported by the Organisation for its official use and in the case of any publications of the Organisation directly imported or exported by it.

(3) Subject to subsection (4) of this section, any rule of law relating to the inviolability of the official archives and premises of an envoy of a foreign sovereign State accredited to the President shall extend to the official archives of the Organisation, and to premises occupied by the Organisation wholly or mainly for the housing of its installations, and, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing provisions, no judgment or order of any court shall be enforced by the levying of execution upon anything forming part of any such installations.

(4) Subsection (3) of this section (except so far as it relates to execution) shall not preclude access to any premises, or the inspection of any record or document—

(a) by a member of the Garda Síochána or other person acting in the execution of a warrant or other legal process,

(b) by any person or body acting in pursuance of regulations under section 60 of the Principal Act, or

(c) by a member of the Garda Síochána having reason to believe that an offence has been or is being or is about to be committed on the premises.

(5) Persons employed by the Organisation in the State shall be entitled to exemption from customs duties and charges, other than those in respect of services rendered, in the case of importation of their personal effects, movable property and other household effects which are not new and which they bring into the State on first taking up residence in the State for the purpose of such employment and in the case of the exportation of those effects and property upon their ceasing to be employed by the Organisation in the State.

(6) In this section “installations” means apparatus for locating, directing, affording navigational aid to, or otherwise communicating with aircraft in flight, including apparatus for recording or processing material received or transmitted by such apparatus, and any other apparatus for use in connection with any such apparatus as aforesaid.

Power to give effect to Convention.

4.—(1) The Minister may from time to time make such orders as appear to him necessary or expedient for carrying out the Convention and the Statute of the Agency referred to in the Convention and any modifications made to the Statute and for giving effect thereto or to any of the provisions thereof and every such order shall have the force of law in the State.

(2) An order under this section may contain such incidental, supplementary and consequential provisions as appear to the Minister to be necessary or expedient for the purposes of the order.

(3) The Minister may by order revoke or amend an order under this section including an order under this subsection.

Payments to Organisation by Minister.

5.—The Minister may pay to the Organisation from time to time, out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas, such sums as, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, he may determine, being sums for the payment of which the State is liable under the Convention.

Provision of land etc., by Minister for Organisation.

6.—The Minister may provide for the Organisation, upon such terms and subject to such conditions as may be agreed upon by the Minister and the Organisation with the consent of the Minister for Finance, land, premises, installations, equipment and services (including the services of personnel).

Obligation to comply with authorisation to proceed issued by Organisation.

7.—Aircraft operating in airspace over the State in which, pursuant to the Convention, air traffic services are provided by the Organisation and aircraft registered in the State operating in any airspace in which air traffic services are provided by the Organisation shall comply with authorisations to proceed issued by or on behalf of the Organisation and with the conditions (if any) specified in the authorisations.

Penalty for non-compliance with authorisation to proceed issued by Organisation.

8.—(1) Where there is a contravention in respect of an aircraft of section 7 of this Act, the owner or hirer of the aircraft and also the pilot or commander shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or, at the discretion of the court, to both the fine and the imprisonment.

(2) Where a person is charged with an offence under this section, it shall be a defence for the person to prove that the contravention of section 7 of this Act in respect of which he is charged was due to stress of weather or other unavoidable cause or that the contravention took place without his knowledge or without his actual default or privity.

Detention of aircraft.

9.—(1) The Minister may by order provide for the detention of aircraft to secure compliance with the Convention, any order or regulation under this Act or an authorisation to proceed issued by or on behalf of the Organisation.

(2) The references in sections 64 and 65 of the Principal Act to the Principal Act shall be construed as including references to this Act.

Keeping of records by aircraft operators.

10.—(1) The Minister may by regulations under this section—

(a) require the owners or hirers of aircraft to keep records of the movements of the aircraft in such form and containing such particulars as may be specified in the regulations,

(b) provide for production to and inspection by officers of the Minister of records kept pursuant to the regulations,

(c) provide that records of the movements of aircraft kept by such persons as may be designated in the regulations shall, until the contrary is proved, be evidence in proceedings in relation to an offence under section 8 of this Act or under the Air Navigation and Transport Acts, 1936 to 1961, of the matters entered, pursuant to the regulations, in the records, and that documents purporting to be records of the movements of aircraft and to be kept by persons designated for the purpose in the regulations shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to be such records and to be so kept.

(2) Regulations under this section may be made applicable to any aircraft in or over the State or to aircraft registered in the State wherever they may be.

(3) A person who contravenes a regulation under this section shall be guilty of an offence and be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or, at the discretion of the court, to both the fine and the imprisonment.

(4) A person who obstructs or interferes with an officer of the Minister when he is exercising a power conferred by regulations under this section shall be guilty of an offence and be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding ten pounds.

(5) In this section “record” includes, in addition to a record in writing—

(a) any disc, tape, sound-track or other device in which sounds or signals are embodied so as to be capable (with or without the aid of some other instrument) of being reproduced therefrom,

(b) any film, tape or other device in which visual images are embodied so as to be capable (with or without the aid of some other instrument) of being reproduced therefrom, and

(c) any photograph,

and any reference to a copy of a record includes, in the case of a record falling within paragraph (a) only of this definition, a transcript of the sounds or signals embodied therein, in the case of a record falling within paragraph (b) only of this definition, a still reproduction of the images embodied therein, and in the case of a record falling within both those paragraphs, such a transcript together with such a still reproduction.

Prosecution of offences by Minister.

11.—An offence under section 8 or 10 of this Act may be prosecuted by the Minister.

Payment of fee by aircraft operators to Minister and Organisation.

12.—(1) The Minister may by regulations under this section—

(a) provide for the payment to the Organisation or to the Minister for transmission to the Organisation of fees in respect of air navigation services provided by the Organisation,

(b) provide for the payment to the Minister of fees in respect of air navigation services provided by the Minister,

(c) provide for the payment of the fees by owners or, in the case of aircraft on hire, the hirers of aircraft for which the services are available (whether or not the services are actually used or could be used with the equipment installed in the aircraft) or by the managers of aerodromes used by such aircraft, or partly by those owners or hirers and partly by those managers,

(d) specify the amount of the fees payable under the regulations including fees of different amounts in respect of different services or in respect of aircraft of different classes or descriptions or used in different circumstances,

(e) specify the services in respect of which fees shall be payable,

(f) provide for the recovery by the Organisation of fees payable pursuant to the regulations to the Organisation and for the recovery by the Minister of fees payable pursuant to the regulations to the Minister (including fees payable to the Minister for transmission to the Organisation).

(2) The following provisions shall have effect in relation to fees payable to the Minister under this section in respect of air navigation services provided by the Minister—

(a) the fees shall be collected in money and taken in such manner as the Minister for Finance may from time to time direct, and shall be paid into or disposed of for the benefit of the Exchequer in accordance with the directions of the Minister for Finance, and

(b) the Public Offices (Fees) Act, 1879, shall not apply in respect of such fees.

(3) In this section “air navigation services” includes information, directions and other facilities furnished, issued or provided for the purposes of or in connection with the navigation or movement of aircraft.

Acquisition of land and of water rights.

13.—(1) Whenever the Organisation requests the Minister to acquire land or a right of impounding, diverting or abstracting water and informs the Minister that the land or right, as the case may be, is required for any purpose related to the activities of the Organisation, the Minister, if he is satisfied that the land or right is required by the Organisation for such purpose, shall acquire such land or right under the powers conferred on him by Part V of the Principal Act, as amended by this Act, and upon completion of the acquisition, shall transfer the land or right to the Organisation upon such terms and subject to such conditions as may be agreed upon by the Minister and the Organisation with the consent of the Minister for Finance, or in default of agreement, as may be determined by the Minister with the consent of the Minister for Finance.

(2) Section 36 of the Principal Act is hereby amended by the insertion after paragraph (c) (inserted by the Air Navigation and Transport Act, 1950 ) of the following paragraph:

“(d) any purpose related to the activities in the State of the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol) established by the International Convention relating to Co-operation for the Safety of Air Navigation signed at Brussels on the 13th day of December, 1960”.

(3) The Minister shall not make an order under section 41 of the Principal Act without previous consultation with the Minister for Industry and Commerce.

Laying of orders and regulations before Houses of Oireachtas.

14.—Every order and regulation made by the Minister under this Act shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made, and if a resolution annulling the order or regulation is passed by either House within the next subsequent twenty-one days on which that House has sat after the order or regulation is laid before it, the order or regulation shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

Expenses of Minister.

15.—The expenses incurred by the Minister in the administration of this Act shall, to such extent as may be sanctioned by the Minister for Finance, be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.