No. 37/1993:

GREYHOUND INDUSTRY (AMENDMENT) ACT, 1993

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

Section

1. Definition.

2. Amendment of section 9 of Principal Act.

3. Amendment of section 36 of Principal Act.

4. Repeals.

5. Short title, collective citation and construction.

ACTS REFERRED TO

Number 37 of 1993

GREYHOUND INDUSTRY (AMENDMENT) ACT, 1993

AN ACT TO AMEND THE GREYHOUND INDUSTRY ACT 1958 .

[22nd December, 1993]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:

1.—In this Act "the Principal Act" means the Greyhound Industry Act, 1958 .

2.—(1) section 9 of the Principal Act is hereby amended by the substitution for subsections (2) to (5) of the following subsections:

"(2) ( a ) The Minister shall, before the 1st day of January, 1994, appoint 6 persons to be ordinary members of the Board and the term of office of every person so appointed shall commence on the 1st day of January, 1994, and if any such person dies before that date he shall be deemed for the purposes of subsection (5) to have died on the 1st day of January, 1994.

( b ) The Minister may, as occasion requires after the 1st day of January, 1994, appoint a person to be an ordinary member of the Board in place of an ordinary member whose term of office expires by effluxion of time and the term of office of every person so appointed shall commence on the day next following the day of his appointment.

(2A) Subject to the provisions of this section, each ordinary member of the Board shall hold office on such terms and conditions as the Minister may determine.

( 3 ) ( a ) Subject to the provisions of this subsection, the term of office of an ordinary member of the Board shall be 3 years.

( b ) The term of office of 2 (determined by the Minister by lot) of the first ordinary members appointed pursuant to subsection (2) (a) of this section shall be 1 year.

( c ) The term of office of 2 (determined by the Minister by lot) of the first ordinary members appointed pursuant to subsection (2) (a) of this section shall be 2 years.

( d ) Notwithstanding paragraphs (a) to (c) of this subsection, every member of the Board appointed under subsection (2) of this section shall, unless he sooner dies, resigns, becomes disqualified or is removed, hold office until the expiration of the day on which the Minister next appoints, in pursuance of that subsection, a person to replace that person as an ordinary member of the Board.

(4) Whenever an ordinary member of the Board dies, resigns, becomes disqualified or is removed—

( a ) the Minister shall, as soon as conveniently may be, appoint another person to fill the casual vacancy so occasioned, and

( b ) the person so appointed shall, unless he sooner dies, resigns, becomes disqualified or is removed, hold office for the remainder of the term of office of the member who occasioned the casual vacancy he is appointed to fill and shall be eligible for re-appointment.

(5) An ordinary member of the Board shall be disqualified from holding and shall cease to hold office if he is adjudged bankrupt, or makes a composition or arrangement with his creditors, or is sentenced by a court of competent jurisdiction to suffer imprisonment or penal servitude.".

(2) This section shall come into operation on the 1st day of January, 1994.

3.—Section 36 of the Principal Act is hereby amended—

( a ) by the insertion after subsection (1) of the following new subsection:

"(1A) (a) The Minister may make regulations providing for—

(i) the muzzling of greyhounds participating in events, and the manner of, and the type of muzzle to be used for, such muzzling,

(ii) prohibiting the participation of a greyhound in an event if it is not muzzled or if the muzzling of the greyhound does not comply with the regulations,

(iii) the supervision by a veterinary surgeon of hares coursed in events prior to, during and after the events,

(iv) the marking, before their release into the wild, of hares after an authorised coursing meeting of such kind as the Minister may specify in the regulations,

(v) prohibiting the coursing of a hare in an event if the hare has been coursed in an event at a prior authorised coursing meeting of such kind as the Minister may specify in the regulations,

(vi) prohibiting the coursing of a hare in an event if it is not fit to be coursed, and

(vii) the giving by a veterinary surgeon of a direction—

(I) prohibiting the participation of a greyhound in an event if he considers that the muzzling of the greyhound does not comply with the regulations,

(II) prohibiting the coursing of a hare in an event if he considers that the hare has been coursed in an event at a prior authorised coursing meeting of such kind as the Minister may specify in the regulations, or

(III) prohibiting the coursing of a hare in an event if he considers that the hare is not fit to be coursed.

( b ) In this subsection—

'event' means an event forming an item at an authorised coursing meeting of such kind as the Minister may specify in the regulations and includes a pre-coursing trial of such kind as may be specified by the Minister in the regulations, and

veterinary surgeon' means a registered veterinary surgeon within the meaning of the Veterinary Surgeons Act, 1931 ", and

( b ) by the substitution for subsection (2) of the following subsection:

"(2) If, in relation to an authorised coursing meeting, there is a contravention of a regulation under this section or a direction under such a regulation, the person holding the meeting and, if the direction relates to a greyhound, the owner of the greyhound shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £1,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both.".

4.—(1) Subsections (5) and (6) (insofar as that subsection relates to non-compliance with a condition attached to a greyhound race track licence referred to in the said subsection (5)) of section 23 of the Principal Act are hereby repealed.

(2) This section shall be deemed to have come into operation on the 1st day of December, 1992.

5.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Greyhound Industry (Amendment) Act, 1993 .

(2) The Principal Act and this Act may be cited together as the Greyhound Industry Acts, 1958 and 1993, and shall be construed together as one.