No. 24/1960:

OIL BURNERS (STANDARDS) ACT, 1960

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

1 Interpretation.

2 Safety standards and instructions for use of oil heaters.

3 Prohibition of sale, etc, of oil heaters or component parts not complying with regulations.

4 Inspection and testing of oil heaters and component parts.

5 Offences.

6 Laying of regulations before Houses of the Oireachtas.

7 Short title and commencement.

AN ACT TO MAKE PROVISION FOR MINIMUM STANDARDS OF EFFICIENCY AND SAFETY IN RESPECT OF OIL-BURNING APPLIANCES; AND FOR PURPOSES CONNECTED THEREWITH.

[26th July, 1960.]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:—

1.—(1) In this Act—

"credit-sale agreement" means an agreement for the sale of goods under which the whole or part of the purchase price is payable by instalments;

1946, No. 16:

"hire-purchase agreement" has the same meaning as in the Hire Purchase Act, 1946 ;

"kerosene" means hydrocarbon oil (other than hydrocarbon light oils) of which more than fifty per cent. by volume distils at a temperature not exceeding 240 degrees centigrade;

"the Minister" means the Minister for Industry and Commerce;

"oil heater" means any appliance suitable for use in a dwellinghouse or other residential premises and designed for the heating of space by means of the burning of kerosene not being an appliance designed for use with a flue for the removal into the open air, either directly or by connection with another flue or flues, of gases produced by the burning kerosene;

"prescribed" means prescribed by regulations under this Act,

(2) In the definition of "kerosene" contained in subsection (1) of this section—

( a ) "hydrocarbon oil" has the same meaning as that expression has in section 21 of the Finance Act, 1935 ;

( b ) "hydrocarbon light oils" has the same meaning as that expression has in section 1 of the Finance (Customs Duties) (No. 4) Act, 1931 ;

( c ) the reference, to the distillation of more than fifty per cent. by volume at a temperature not exceeding 240 degrees centigrade shall be construed as a reference to such a distillation on a test by the method prescribed by the Revenue Commissioners pursuant to subsection (7) of the said section 1.

(3) In this Act any reference to component parts of oil heaters includes a reference to burners and to wicks.

2.—(1) The Minister may by regulations provide—

( a ) for requiring oil heaters of such class or description as may be specified in the regulations, or any component part of an oil heater, being a part of such class or description as may be so specified, to comply with such standards of safety as in his opinion are appropriate to reduce or prevent the risk of fire;

( b ) for requiring oil heaters of such class or description as may be so specified to bear by means of such a label or such other means so specified—

(i) instructions on such matters as may be prescribed as to the working and use of oil heaters, and

(ii) a statement of compliance with the standards of safety required by the regulations under this Act;

( c ) for any other matter for which regulations are authorised under this Act.

(2) Regulations made under this section may contain different provisions for different classes or descriptions of oil heaters or component parts of oil heaters and, in the case of regulations made for the purposes of paragraph (a) of the foregoing subsection, may prescribe the means for ascertaining for the purposes of this Act whether any oil heaters or component parts comply with the requirements of the regulations.

3.—(1) If any person in the course of a business sells, or lets under a hire-purchase agreement or on hire, or has in his possession for the purpose of selling or letting, an oil heater and either—

( a ) the oil heater, or a component part of it, does not comply with any standard of safety prescribed for the class or description of oil heater, or, as the case may be, component part, to which the oil heater or component part belongs, or

( b ) the oil heater does not bear instructions or a statement in compliance with the requirements of any regulations made for the purposes of paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of section 2 of this Act,

he shall, subject to the provisions of this section, be guilty of an offence.

(2) If any person, in the course of a business, sells, or has in his possession for the purpose of selling, a component part intended for, but not embodied in, an oil heater and the component part does not comply with the standards of safety prescribed for the class or description of component part to which it belongs he shall, subject to the provisions of this section, be guilty of an offence.

(3) A person shall not be convicted of an offence under subsection (1) of this section if he proves—

( a ) that the sale or letting was carried out, or he was in possession of the oil heater, as the case may be, as the agent of a person who was not acting in the course of a business or as the servant of such an agent; or

( b ) he reasonably believed that the oil heater would not be used in the State; or

( c ) in the case of a letting on hire the letting was incidental to the letting of premises; or

( d ) in the case of a sale under a credit-sale agreement or a letting under a hire-purchase agreement, he had at no time possession of the oil heater and only became the owner thereof at the time of entering into the agreement; or

( e ) in the case of any letting, the letting was lawful at the time the hirer or the hirer's predecessor in title obtained possession of the oil heater,

and a person shall not be convicted of an offence under subsection (2) of this section if he proves that the sale was carried out, or, as the case may be, he was in possession of the component part, as the agent of a person who was not acting in the course of a business, or as the servant of such an agent or that he reasonably believed that the component part would not be used in the State.

(4) A person shall not be convicted of an offence under paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of this section or subsection (2) thereof in relation to an oil heater or component part if he proves that he had reasonable cause to believe that the oil heater, or, as the case may be, component part, complied with the standards of safety prescribed for the class or description of oil heater or component part to which it belongs.

(5) Regulations under this Act may contain such provisions as appear to the Minister necessary or expedient for authorising the sale, letting or possession of oil heaters or component parts manufactured before the coming into operation of the regulations, or for authorising the sale or letting of oil heaters or component parts for such purposes as may be specified in the regulations, and a person shall not be guilty of an offence under subsection (1) of this section if he proves that the sale, letting or possession of the heater was authorised by those regulations, or of an offence under subsection (2) of this section if he proves that the sale or possession of the component part was so authorised.

4.—(1) An authorised officer may, subject to the provisions of this section and having produced his appointment as an authorised officer, inspect an oil heater for the purpose of determining whether—

( a ) it is an oil heater which, or any component part of which, is of a class or description to which the requirements of any regulations under this Act apply, and

( b ) if it is such an oil heater, the oil heater, or any component part of it, complies with any such requirement as aforesaid and, subject as aforesaid and having produced his appointment, may inspect a component part intended for but not embodied in an oil heater for the purpose of determining whether—

(i) it is a component part of a class or description to which the requirements of any regulations under this Act apply, and

(ii) if it is such a component part, it complies with any such requirement as aforesaid.

(2) An authorised officer shall not, by virtue of subsection (1) of this section, inspect an oil heater or component part unless it is kept on premises for the purpose of being sold or let in the course of a business.

(3) Any person who wilfully obstructs any person in the exercise of his powers under subsection (1) of this section shall be guilty of an offence.

(4) The Institute for Industrial Research and Standards—

( a ) may carry out a test of an oil heater which, or any component part of which, is of a class or description to which any requirements of regulations under this Act apply for the purpose of determining whether the oil heater, or component part, complies with any standard of safety prescribed for the class or description of oil heater or component part to which the oil heater or component part belongs, and

( b ) may carry out a test of a component part intended for but not embodied in an oil heater, being a component part of a class or description to which any requirements of regulations under this Act apply, for the purpose of determining whether the component part complies with any standard of safety prescribed for the class or description of component part to which it belongs.

(5) In this section "authorised officer" means—

( a ) an officer of the Minister, or

( b ) an officer of the Institute for Industrial Research and Standards, appointed in writing by the Minister to be an authorised officer for the purposes of this Act.

5.—(1) A person guilty of an offence under section 3 of this Act shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds, and a person guilty of an offence under section 4 of this Act shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds.

(2) Where an offence under this Act which has been committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary, or other similar officer of the body corporate, or any person purporting to act in any such capacity, he as well as the body corporate shall be deemed to be guilty of the offence.

6.—Every regulation under this Act shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the regulation is passed by either House within the next twenty-one days on which that House has sat after the regulation has been laid before it, the regulation shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

7.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Oil Burners (Standards) Act, 1960 .

(2) This Act shall come into operation on the 1st day of January, 1961, or such earlier day as the Minister may by order appoint.