Fisheries Act, 1980

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CHAPTER III

Fishery Improvement

Powers of Central Board and regional boards in relation to improvement of fisheries.

18.—(1) Subject to the following subsections of this section, for the purpose of improving any fishery (whether or not the fishery is the property of the Central Board or the regional board concerned) the Central Board or a regional board may do all or any of the following, namely—

(a) take fish from a fishery by any means whatsoever,

(b) implement any other measure intended to alter or regulate the stock in a fishery of fish of one or more particular species,

(c) keep under surveillance and from time to time ascertain by any means the quality of water in a fishery,

(d) alter, repair, remove or demolish any fence, hedge, tree or wall,

(e) dig, break or otherwise temporarily close, cross, extend, divert or otherwise interfere with or alter any navigable waterway, river, stream or other watercourse, bridge, tunnel, culvert, pipe, drain or other thing,

(f) notwithstanding section 327 of the Principal Act, take materials from any river, stream or other watercourse,

provided that a board shall only exercise a power under paragraph (e) or (f) of this subsection after consultation with the Commissioners and provided also that in relation to a fence, hedge, tree or wall which is adjacent to a public road or any property of a public authority, the board shall only exercise a power under this subsection with the consent of the authority concerned, and in case there is a dispute as to whether a particular fence, hedge, tree or wall is adjacent to a public road or any such property, the matter shall be referred by the board concerned to the Minister to determine, whose decision, after consultation with the Minister for the Environment or such other Minister of the Government as he considers appropriate, shall be final.

(2) (a) Subject to paragraph (b) of this subsection, a board shall not, in relation to a several fishery or other thing exercise a power mentioned in subsection (1) of this section without the consent of the owner thereof, and for the avoidance of doubt it is hereby declared that in case the owner of the several fishery or other thing is a Minister of the Government, the Irish Land Commission, the Commissioners or a public authority, the said Minister, the said Commission, the Commissioners or the public authority in giving such consent may attach thereto such reasonable conditions as he or they think fit, and in addition to the foregoing, the board shall not enter on or take possession of any fishery or land without giving the occupier thereof one month's previous notice in writing of its intention so to do.

(b) Where, on an application made to him by a board, the Minister is satisfied that the owner of a several fishery or other thing cannot by diligent inquiry be found or ascertained, he may issue an authorisation under this section as regards the several fishery or other thing and for so long as an authorisation under this section is in force paragraph (a) of this subsection shall not apply as regards the several fishery or other thing to which the authorisation relates.

(c) The Minister may at any time withdraw an authorisation under this section either on his own motion or on the application of any other person.

(3) Subject to section 43 of this Act, the Central Board or any regional board, or their servants or agents or any contractor employed by the board or any workman employed by such contractor may, with or without vehicles, machinery or other apparatus (including boats or other vessels) or equipment, for the purpose of,

(a) gaining access to the site of fishery improvement works which are completed or which are in the course of being carried out or are to be carried out by the board,

(b) gaining access to a fishery (whether or not the fishery is the property of the board) in order to inspect or maintain it, enter on land at any reasonable time.

(4) (a) Subject to paragraphs (b) and (c) of this subsection, to subsection (1) of this section and to section 43 of this Act, a board may for any purpose mentioned in subsection (3) of this section construct on or over any land a bridge, road or pathway of any description, and when constructed by the board, use and maintain such bridge, road or pathway.

(b) Before exercising a power to construct under this subsection a board shall obtain the consent of the local authority within whose functional area the proposed bridge, road or pathway, or any part thereof, is proposed to be situate.

(c) Where a board proposes to construct under this subsection a bridge, road or pathway on any land which is in the possession or occupation of the Minister, any other Minister of the Government, the Irish Land Commission, the Commissioners or a public authority, before exercising any of their powers in relation to the provision of the bridge, road or pathway, the board shall first obtain the consent of—

(i) in case the land is in the possession or occupation of a Minister of the Government, that Minister,

(ii) in case the land is in the occupation or possession of the Irish Land Commission or the Commissioners, the said Commission or the Commissioners, as may be appropriate,

(iii) in case the land is in the occupation or possession of a public authority, that authority,

and the requirements of this paragraph are in addition to and not in substitution for the requirements of paragraph (b) of this subsection.

(5) A person entering on land under this section may do thereon all things ancillary to or reasonably necessary for the purpose for which the entry is made.

(6) A person authorised under Article 20 of Part I of the Second Schedule to this Act or Article 18 of Part II of the said Second Schedule to exercise a power mentioned in subsection (1) of this section shall be furnished by the Central Board or the regional board concerned, as may be appropriate, with a certificate of such authorisation and when doing anything pursuant to the authorisation shall, if requested by the person affected, produce the certificate to that person.

(7) (a) Nothing in this section shall be construed as conferring on any person a power to enter a dwellinghouse, nor except where there is through the garden or curtilage of a dwellinghouse an ordinary road or passage to a fishery, shall it be construed as conferring on any person a power to enter such a garden or curtilage.

(b) Nothing in this section shall be construed as enabling a regional board to exercise outside its fisheries region any of the powers conferred on it by this section.

(c) Nothing in this section shall be construed as modifying or otherwise affecting the application of any requirement under the Local Government (Planning and Development) Acts, 1963 and 1976.