18.— (1) Subject to subsection (2), the Authority may and, at the request of the Minister, shall—

(a) prepare and publish a code of practice, or

(b) approve of a code of practice drawn up by any other body,

for the purpose of setting standards for the provision of property services (including a class of property services).

(2) Before publishing or approving of a code of practice under this section, the Authority—

(a) may publish in such manner as the Authority considers appropriate a draft of the code and shall allow persons 30 days from the date of publication of the draft code within which to make representations in writing to the Authority in relation to the draft code or such further period, not exceeding 30 days, as the Authority in its absolute discretion thinks fit, and

(b) following consultation and, where relevant, having considered the representations (if any) made, shall submit the draft code to the Minister for his or her consent to its publication or approval of under this section, with or without modifications.

(3) Where the Authority publishes or approves of a code of practice under this section, the Minister shall cause a notice to that effect to be published in Iris Oifigiúil—

(a) identifying or specifying the code,

(b) specifying the property service in respect of which the code is so published or approved, as the case may be, and

(c) specifying the date from which the code shall have effect.

(4) The Authority may, with the consent of the Minister but subject to subsection (5)—

(a) amend or revoke a code of practice published under this section, or

(b) withdraw its approval of any code of practice approved of under this section.

(5) Subsection (2) shall, with all necessary modifications, apply to a code of practice that the Authority proposes to amend or revoke, or withdraw its approval of, under subsection (4) as subsection (2) applies to a code of practice that the Authority proposes to publish or approve of under this section.

(6) Where the Authority amends or revokes, or withdraws its approval of, a code of practice published or approved of under this section, the Minister shall cause a notice to that effect to be published in Iris Oifigiúil—

(a) identifying or specifying the code to which the amendment, revocation, or withdrawal, as the case may be, relates and, if applicable, particulars of the amendment,

(b) specifying the property service in respect of which the code is so amended, revoked or withdrawn, as the case may be, and

(c) specifying the date from which the amendment, revocation, or withdrawal, as the case may be, shall have effect.

(7) The Authority shall encourage licensees, or classes of licensees, as applicable, to comply with codes of practice published or approved of under this section (including such a code as amended from time to time under this section).

(8) The Authority shall make available for inspection free of charge to members of the public at its principal office during normal working hours a copy of each code of practice published or approved of under this section (including such a code as amended from time to time under this section).

(9) A document bearing the seal of the Authority and purporting to be a code of practice published or approved of under this section or, where such a code has been amended under this section, the code as so amended shall be admissible in evidence in any proceedings under this Act.

(10) A failure on the part of a licensee to observe any provision of a code of practice published or approved of under this section (including such a code as amended from time to time under this section) shall not of itself render the licensee liable to any civil or criminal proceedings but where, in any proceedings under this Act, improper conduct by a licensee is alleged to have occurred or to be occurring in the case of any matter in respect of which there was such a code of practice in effect at the time of the alleged occurrence, subsection (11) shall have effect in respect of such code for the purposes of those proceedings.

(11) The Authority, the Appeal Board or any court or tribunal may, in any proceedings under this Act to determine whether improper conduct by a licensee has occurred or is occurring, have regard to any provision of a code of practice published or approved of under this section (including such a code as amended from time to time under this section) which appears to it to be relevant to the improper conduct concerned.

(12) In this section (including subsection (2)(a)), “code of practice” includes part of a code of practice.