Sea Pollution (Amendment) Act 1999

Detention of ships.

14

14.—The Principal Act is hereby amended by—

(a) the substitution in section 22 of the following subsection for subsection (2):

“(2) Without prejudice to any other power conferred on an inspector under this Act, an inspector to whom this section applies may, if he is satisfied that a ship (or any fitting or equipment thereon) does not comply with a certificate referred to in subsection (1) or is so defective that the ship is not fit to put to sea without presenting a serious threat to living marine resources, detain a ship, or take a ship to such place in the State as he considers appropriate, and there detain it until such time as any directions given by him under this section in relation to the ship have been complied with”,

(b) the substitution in section 24 of the following subsection for subsection (1):

“(1) Whenever an inspector or a harbour-master has reasonable cause to believe that a ship has caused or may cause pollution and the ship is in the State, he may stop and detain the ship, or take it to such place in the State as he considers appropriate and there detain it.”

(c) the substitution of the following section for section 39:

“39.—(1) Where an inspector or harbour-master has, in the exercise of the powers conferred on him by section 22(2) or 24 detained a ship and the persons on board the ship at a port or other place in the State, any inspector, or the harbour-master concerned, who suspects that a person on board the ship has committed an offence under this Act shall (unless he is proceeding under section 39A), as soon as may be, apply to a judge of the District Court for an order authorising the continued detention of the ship and those persons, and the said judge may grant an order authorising such detention for a period of 48 hours if he is satisfied that the applicant inspector or harbour-master has such a suspicion as aforementioned.

(2) Upon the expiration of the period of 48 hours—

(a) the ship shall be released unless an order providing for its further detention is made under section 39A before the expiration of the said period of 48 hours, and

(b) each person on board the ship shall be released unless an order providing for his further detention is made under the said section before the expiration of the said period.”,

and

(d) the insertion of the following section after section 39:

“39A.— Where an inspector or harbour-master has, in the exercise of the powers conferred on him by section 22(2) or 24, detained a ship and the persons on board the ship at a port or other place in the State, any inspector or the harbour-master concerned shall, as soon as may be, bring the master of the ship and any other persons on board the ship, against whom proceedings for an offence under this Act have been or are about to be instituted, before a judge of the District Court and thereupon the said judge shall, if he is satisfied that such proceedings have been or are about to be instituted against the master and those other persons or any one or more of them, by order directed to an inspector or the harbour-master concerned, require such inspector or harbour-master to detain at a specified place in the State the ship and each person (including the master) aforesaid in respect of whom he is so satisfied, until such proceedings have been adjudicated upon by a court in exercise of its criminal jurisdiction.”.