Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1926

Regulations as to wireless telegraphy in ships and aircraft.

9.—(1) The Minister may by order made after consultation with the Minister for Industry and Commerce make regulations in respect of all or any of the following matters, that is to say:—

(a) requiring operators and other persons engaged in the working of apparatus for wireless telegraphy on all or any classes or class of ships registered in Saorstát Eireann to hold certificates of competency;

(b) requiring operators and other persons engaged in the working of apparatus for wireless telegraphy on all or any classes or class of aircraft owned in Saorstát Eireann to hold certificates of competency;

(c) the grant and renewal of such certificates of competency, the terms and conditions on which such certificates will be granted, and the qualifications to be possessed and the examinations and other tests to be undergone by persons to whom such certificates are granted;

(d) the duration, revocation and suspension of certificates of competency granted under the regulations;

(e) the validity, duration, renewal, revocation, and suspension of certificates of competency granted otherwise than under the regulations whether by the Minister or any other person and whether before or after the passing of this Act;

(f) subject to the sanction of the Minister for Finance, the fees to be charged for or in connection with the granting and renewal of any such certificates of competence as aforesaid and the collection and disposal of such fees;

(g) regulating and controlling the times and manner of working apparatus for wireless telegraphy in ships registered in Saorstát Eireann and, while they are in the territorial waters of Saorstát Eireann, ships registered outside Saorstát Eireann and unregistered ships and other vessels;

(h) regulating and controlling the times and manner of working apparatus for wireless telegraphy in aircraft owned in Saorstát Eireann and, while they are in or over Saorstát Eireann or the territorial waters thereof, aircraft not so owned;

(i) giving effect to and securing compliance with the provisions (save in so far as the same relate to ships to which this section and regulations made thereunder do not apply) of any international convention in relation to wireless telegraphy entered into by the Government of Saorstát Eireann.

(2) Regulations made under this Act may provide that a breach or contravention of any specified regulation shall be an offence triable summarily, and may prescribe the punishments which may be inflicted for any such breach or contravention but so that a maximum punishment only and no minimum punishment shall be so prescribed and that no such maximum punishment shall exceed a fine of ten pounds together with, in the case of a continuing breach or contravention, a fine of one pound for every day during which the breach or contravention is committed and, in any case, forfeiture of any certificate or apparatus in relation to which the breach or contravention is committed.

(3) Every regulation made under this section shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and if either such House shall, within twenty-one days on which either such House has sat next after the regulation was laid before such Houses, pass a resolution annulling such regulation such regulation shall be annulled accordingly but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under such regulation.

(4) For the purposes of this section an aircraft shall be deemed to be owned in Saorstát Eireann if but only if it is owned by a person who, in the case of an individual, has his usual place of residence in Saorstát Eirreann or, in the case of an association, company, or other body (whether corporate or unincorporate), has its principal office in Saorstát Eireann.

(5) Neither this section nor any regulation made thereunder shall apply to any ship to which the Merchant Shipping (Wireless Telegraphy) Act, 1919 applies.