COMMISSIONERS FOR OATHS (DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR) ACT, 1931

AN ACT TO ENABLE PERSONS PERFORMING DIPLOMATIC OR CONSULAR SERVICES OUTSIDE SAORSTÁT EIREANN TO ADMINISTER OATHS AND DO NOTARIAL ACTS IN THE COUNTRIES IN WHICH THEY ARE PERFORMING SUCH FUNCTIONS AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES CONNECTED THEREWITH. [21st April, 1931.]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS OF SAORSTÁT EIREANN AS FOLLOWS:—

1 Definitions.

1.—In this Act—

the word “oath” includes affirmation and declaration;

the word “affidavit” includes affirmation, statutory or other declaration, acknowledgment, examination, and attestation or protestation of honour;

the word “swear” includes affirm, declare, and protest.

2 Powers as to oaths and notarial acts abroad.

2.—(1) Every person to whom this section applies may, in any country or place outside Saorstát Eireann in which he is for the time being exercising the functions of his office, administer any oath and take any affidavit, and may also do any notarial act which a notary public can do in Saorstát Eireann, and every oath, affidavit, and notarial act administered, sworn, or done by or before such person in such country or place shall be as effectual as if duly administered, sworn, or done by or before any lawful authority in Saorstát Eireann.

• (2) Any document purporting to have affixed thereon, or thereto, or to have impressed thereon, the seal, and to have subscribed thereto the signature, of any person to whom this section applies in testimony of any oath, affidavit, or act being administered, taken or done by or before him, shall be admitted in evidence (saving all just exceptions) without proof of the seal or signature being the seal or signature of such person, or of the status and official character of such person.

• (3) This section applies to every person who is employed in the Civil Service of the Government of Saorstát Eireann and who is an envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, a high commissioner, a chargé d'affaires, a counsellor of legation, a first secretary of legation, a second secretary of legation, a first secretary of the office of high commissioner, a second secretary of the office of high commissioner, or an attaché.

• (4) This section also applies to every person who is employed in the Civil Service of the Government of Saorstát Eireann and who is a consul-general, a consul, or a vice-consul.

• (5) This section also applies to every person who is an honorary consul or an honorary vice-consul and who is appointed to that office by the Minister for External Affairs.

3 Fees.

3.—(1) The Minister for External Affairs may, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, by order make regulations in relation to all or any of the following matters, that is to say:—

• (a) the fees to be charged by persons to whom the foregoing section applies in respect of the administering, taking, or doing of any oath, affidavit, or notarial act authorised by the said section to be administered, taken, or done by them:

• (b) the manner in which such fees are to be collected;

• (c) any other matter or thing relating to such fees;

and different regulations may be made in relation to different countries and places.

• (2) All fees collected under this section shall be paid into or disposed of for the benefit of the Exchequer in such manner as the Minister for Finance may direct.

• (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 a resolution is passed by either House of the Oireachtas within the next subsequent twenty-one days on which such House has sat after such regulation is laid before it annulling such regulation such regulation shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under such regulation.

4 Perjury.

4.—(1) Every person who wilfully and corruptly swears falsely in any oath or affidavit taken or made in accordance with this Act shall be guilty of the offence of perjury in every case where if he had so sworn in a judicial proceeding before a court of competent jurisdiction he would be guilty of the offence of perjury.

• (2) A person charged with the offence of perjury under this section may be proceeded against, indicted, tried, and punished in any county or county borough in which he was apprehended or is in custody as if such offence had been committed in such county or county borough, and for all purposes incidental to or consequential on the prosecution, trial, or punishment of such offence, it shall be deemed to have been committed in such county or county borough.

5 Short title.

5.—This Act may be cited as the Commissioners for Oaths (Diplomatic and Consular) Act, 1931.