DEPARTMENT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC HEALTH.

IMPORTATION OF PARROTS REGULATIONS, 1946.

IMPORTATION OF PARROTS REGULATIONS, 1946.

WHEREAS by virtue of Section 148 of the Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878, the Minister for Local Government and Public Health is empowered from time to time to make, alter and revoke such regulations as to him may seem fit with a view to (amongst other things) preventing the spread of epidemic, endemic or infectious diseases, and to declare by what authority or authorities such regulations shall be enforced and executed :

AND WHEREAS by the Public Health Act, 1896, it is enacted in effect that regulations made under the said section 148 of the Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878, may provide for such regulations being enforced and executed by the officers of customs and excise, provided that such regulations, so far as they apply to the officers of customs and excise, shall be subject to the consent of the Revenue Commissioners :

AND WHEREAS Psittacosis is an infectious disease and it is expedient to make the regulations hereinafter set forth for preventing the spread thereof by controlling the importation of certain cage birds by which the said disease is propagated :

AND WHEREAS the Revenue Commissioners have signified their assent to these regulations so far as they apply to officers of customs and excise :

NOW THEREFORE the Minister for Local Government and Public Health, in exercise of the powers vested in him by the Public Health Acts, 1878 to 1931, and of all other powers enabling him in this behalf, hereby makes the following regulations, that is to say :—

1. In these Regulations :—

the expression " the Minister " means the Minister for Local Government and Public Health ;

the word " parrot " includes a cockatoo, parakeet, love-bird or any other bird of the parrot species ;

the expression " officer of customs and excise " includes any person enforcing or executing these regulations under the authority of the Revenue Commissioners ;

the expression " sanitary authority " means, in relation to a customs port or customs station or any part thereof which is within the jurisdiction of a port sanitary authority, and in relation to any other customs port or customs station or part thereof, the sanitary authority for the purposes of the Public Health Acts, 1878 to 1931 whose district includes or abuts on such port, station or part thereof.

2. No person shall import any parrot unless such person is the holder of a permit (hereinafter referred to as an import permit) granted by the Minister under these regulations authorising him to import such parrot and such parrot is imported under and in accordance with such permit.

3. (1) The Minister may grant an import permit

(a) to the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland to import one or more parrots for the purpose of the maintenance or improvement of rare species of parrot in the said Society's Zoological Gardens, and

(b) to any association or institution engaged in medical or veterinary research to import one or more parrots for the purpose of such research.

(2) Every import permit shall

(a) be expressed and operate to allow the importation of the number of parrots specified in such permit within the time stated in such permit, and

(b) be granted subject to such conditions as the Minister may think fit to impose.

4. Where a parrot has been imported in contravention of these regulations it shall be forfeited and the proper officer of customs and excise shall notify the sanitary authority of such importation and forfeiture.

5. Whenever a sanitary authority receives under the foregoing article a notification in respect of any parrot they shall cause such parrot to be destroyed under the supervision of a medical officer of health or other officer, and such officer shall certify the fact of such destruction to the officer of customs and excise from whom such notification was so received.

6. For the purpose of these regulations a parrot which is transported by sea or air shall not, so long as it remains in the ship or aircraft in which it is so transported, be deemed to have been imported.

7. The Importation of Parrots (Temporary) Regulations, 1930, are hereby revoked.

8. These regulations may be cited as the Importation of Parrots Regulations, 1946.

GIVEN under the Official Seal of the Minister for Local Government and Public Health this fifth day of November, One Thousand Nine Hundred and Forty-six.

(Signed) SEÁN MACENTEE,

Minister for Local Government and Public Health.