56.— (1) The Personal Injuries Assessment Board Act 2003 is amended—

(a) by the insertion, after section 3 of the following section:

“Civil actions to which Act does not apply.

3A.— Notwithstanding section 3, this Act does not apply to a civil action to which any of the following applies:

(a) the Warsaw Convention;

(b) the Montreal Convention;

(c) Council Regulation (EC) No. 2027/97;

(d) section 46(2) of the Civil Liability Act 1961;

(e) the Athens Convention;

(f) Regulation (EC) No. 392/2009;

(g) Part III of the Merchant Shipping (Liability of Shipowners and Others) Act 1996;

insofar as those statutory provisions are in force and insofar as those conventions and regulations are applicable to or in the State.”,

(b) in section 4(1), by the insertion of the following:

“ ‘Athens Convention’ means the Athens Convention relating to the Carriage of Passengers and their Luggage by Sea, 1974, as amended by the Protocol of 2002 (the Athens Convention) and as amended from time to time;

‘Council Regulation (EC) No. 2027/97’ means Council Regulation (EC) No. 2027/97 on air carrier liability in respect of the carriage of passengers and their baggage by air, as amended by Regulation (EC) No. 889/2002 ¹ and as amended from time to time;

‘Montreal Convention’ means the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air, signed at Montreal on 28 May 1999 and as amended from time to time;

‘Regulation (EC) No. 392/2009 ²’ means Regulation (EC) No. 392/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the liability of carriers of passengers by sea in the event of accidents, as amended from time to time;

‘Warsaw Convention’ means the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules Relating to International Carriage by Air, signed at Warsaw on 12 October 1929, or the Warsaw Convention as amended—

(a) at The Hague on 28 September 1955,

(b) by the Convention supplementary to the Warsaw Convention done at Guadalajara on 18 September 1961, and

(c) as amended from time to time;”,

(c) in section 12, by the substitution for subsection (5) of the following:

“(5) The issuing of a notice of motion or the moving of a motion for the purposes of an application referred to in subsection (4) shall not be regarded as the commencement of proceedings in respect of the relevant claim for the purposes of any applicable limitation period in relation to such claim (including any limitation period under the Statute of Limitations 1957, section 9(2) of the Civil Liability Act 1961, the Statute of Limitations (Amendment) Act 1991 and an international agreement or convention by which the State is bound).”,

and

(d) by the substitution of the following for section 50:

“Reckoning of time for purpose of Statute of Limitations, etc.

50.— In reckoning any period of time for the purpose of any applicable limitation period in relation to a relevant claim (including any limitation period under the Statute of Limitations 1957, section 9(2) of the Civil Liability Act 1961, the Statute of Limitations (Amendment) Act 1991 and an international agreement or convention by which the State is bound), the period beginning on the making of an application under section 11 in relation to the claim and ending 6 months from the date of issue of an authorisation under, as appropriate, section 14, 17, 32, or 36, rules under section 46(3) or section 49 shall be disregarded.”.

(2) The amendment effected by paragraph (d) of subsection (1) shall apply as respects applications made under section 11 after the coming into operation of this section.