Vehicle Clamping Act 2015

2.

Interpretation

2. In this Act—

“Act of 1961” means Road Traffic Act 1961;

“Act of 2005” means Railway Safety Act 2005;

“airport” means a State Airport (within the meaning of the State Airports Act 2004) or another airport for which the Minister may make bye-laws under section 15 of that Act;

“authorised person” means a person or a class of persons appointed under section 23 ;

“clamp” means a device or appliance designed or adapted for fixing to a vehicle for the purpose of preventing it from being driven or otherwise put in motion;

“clamping” means fixing a clamp to a parked vehicle;

“clamping activities” means—

(a) clamping,

(b) removing a clamp from a vehicle,

(c) relocating a vehicle, or

(d) imposing charges—

(i) as a condition for removing a clamp from a vehicle, or

(ii) in respect of the relocation of a vehicle;

“clamping appeals officer” means a person designated by the NTA under section 21 ;

“clamping notice” means a notice affixed to a vehicle in accordance with section 13 ;

“clamping operator” means a person who is authorised by a parking controller to carry out clamping activities on behalf of the parking controller and includes an employee of a clamping operator or any other person engaged by a clamping operator to carry out such activities on his or her behalf and, in respect of clamping activities carried out under section 101B, includes a clamping officer (within the meaning of that section);

“clamping place” means a statutory clamping place or a non-statutory clamping place, or both, as the case may be;

“clamping regulations” means regulations made under section 10 ;

“clamp release charge” means a charge for the removal of a clamp fixed to an unlawfully or a wrongfully parked vehicle;

“code of practice” means a code of practice established under section 12(1);

“enactment” includes an instrument made under an enactment;

“fishery harbour centre” has the meaning assigned to it in the Fishery Harbour Centres Act 1968;

“harbour” has the meaning assigned to it in the Harbours Act 1996;

“local authority” has the meaning assigned to it in the Local Government Act 2001;

“Minister” means Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport;

“non-statutory clamping place” means a place, other than a statutory clamping place, where clamping activities are in operation;

“NTA” means National Transport Authority;

“park”, in relation to a vehicle, has the meaning assigned to it in section 3 of the Act of 1961;

“parking controller”, in relation to a clamping place, means the person who as regards that clamping place is responsible for enforcement of the law or rules applicable to parking in that place, but does not include a member of the Garda Síochána or a traffic warden authorised in that behalf;

“prescribe” means prescribe by regulations;

“public road” has the meaning assigned to it by section 3 of the Act of 1961;

“relevant charge” means a clamp release charge or a relocation charge or both;

“relocating”, in relation to a wrongfully or an unlawfully parked vehicle, means moving the vehicle from the place where it is parked (whether or not a clamp has been fixed to it before or after its relocation) to another place;

“relocation charge” means a charge for relocating an unlawfully or wrongfully parked vehicle to another place;

“section 101B” means section 101B (inserted by section 32 ) of the Act of 1961;

“signage regulations” means regulations made under section 11 ;

“statutory body” means, as the case may be, an airport, Coras Iompair Éireann, the Railway Procurement Agency, a harbour or a fishery harbour centre or a body established under statute having charge of a clamping place specified under section 5 ;

“statutory clamping place” means—

(a) a public road where clamping activities are carried out in accordance with section 101B,

(b) an airport where clamping activities are carried out under bye-laws made under section 15(3)(o) of the State Airports Act 2004,

(c) land belonging to or occupied by Coras Iompair Éireann where clamping activities are carried out under bye-laws made under section 22(1)(ee) (ii) (inserted by section 34(c)) of the Transport Act 1950,

(d) a fishery harbour centre where clamping activities are carried out under bye-laws made under section 4(2)(aa) (inserted by section 35(a)) of the Fishery Harbour Centres Act 1968,

(e) a harbour where clamping activities are carried out under bye-laws made under section 42(1A)(b) (inserted by section 36(c)) of the Harbours Act 1996,

(f) a place where clamping activities are carried out under section 66A (inserted by section 134 of the Act of 2005) of the Transport (Railway Infrastructure) Act 2001, and

(g) such other places as may be specified by the Minister under section 5 where clamping activities are carried out under an enactment;

“traffic warden” has the meaning assigned to it in the Local Authorities (Traffic Wardens) Act 1975;

“unlawful”, in relation to a vehicle parked in a statutory clamping place, means a vehicle that is parked in contravention of an enactment;

“vehicle” means a mechanically propelled vehicle (within the meaning of section 3 of the Act of 1961) a trailer or semi-trailer or a combination of two or more of them;

“website”, in relation to the NTA, means a website maintained by the NTA on the internet;

“wrongful”, in relation to a vehicle parked in a clamping place, means—

(a) where the clamping place is a non-statutory clamping place, the vehicle is parked in contravention of the terms and conditions or restrictions or prohibitions applicable to parking in the place concerned, or

(b) where the clamping place is a statutory clamping place under the control of a statutory body, the charge imposed for parking the vehicle, permitted to be fixed under an enactment, is not paid and the failure to pay the charge does not constitute a contravention of an enactment.

Annotations

Modifications (not altering text):

C8

Reference to “Railway Procurement Agency” construed (1.08.2015) by Roads Act 2015 (14/2015), s. 7(2), commenced as per section and S.I. No. 298 of 2015.

Definitions

2. In this Act— ...

“Authority” means National Roads Authority;

...

“dissolution day” means the day appointed by the Minister under section 6 for the dissolution of the Railway Procurement Agency;

“dissolved body” means the Railway Procurement Agency as it stands dissolved by virtue of this Act;

...

Transfer of functions of dissolved body to Authority

7. ...

(2) References—

(a) to the dissolved body, in any enactment (other than this Act or an enactment mentioned in the Schedule) or any instrument made under an enactment, in so far as they relate to a function transferred by subsection (1), or

...

shall be construed, on and after the dissolution day, as references to the Authority.