AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE (CEREALS) (AMENDMENT) ACT, 1956

AN ACT TO AMEND AND EXTEND THE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE (CEREALS) ACTS, 1933 TO 1939, TO MAKE FURTHER PROVISION FOR THE CONTROL OF THE PURCHASE, SALE, STORAGE AND MILLING OF WHEAT AND TO PROVIDE FOR CERTAIN OTHER MATTERS (INCLUDING THE CHARGING OF CERTAIN FEES) CONNECTED WITH THE MATTERS AFORESAID. [21st February, 1956.]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:—

1 Interpretation.

1.—(1) In this Act—

“the Acts” means the Agricultural Produce (Cereals) Acts, 1933 to 1939;

“inspector” means a person authorised in writing by the Minister to exercise the powers conferred on an inspector by this Act;

“the Minister” means the Minister for Agriculture.

• (2) References in this Act or any order under this Act to the grower of wheat shall, in case such wheat has been purchased before being harvested, be construed as references to the purchaser thereof.

• (3) References in this Act or any order under this Act to moisture content in wheat shall be construed as references to moisture content in wheat by weight.

• (4) The Acts and this Act shall be construed together as one Act.

2 Sale seasons.

2.—(1) The Minister may in any year by order—

• (a) appoint a period, beginning not earlier than the 15th day of July in that year and ending not later than the 31st day of August in the next year, to be a sale season in relation to wheat harvested in that year,

• (b) restrict, to specified categories of persons (including categories consisting of persons holding licences or permits under the order), the purchase during the sale season of such wheat from growers,

• (c) impose conditions to be complied with when purchases of such wheat from growers are effected by persons in such specified categories,

• (d) fix, by reference to any specified matters, prices for such wheat sold by or purchased from growers during the sale season or any specified period during the sale season,

• (e) fix rates of payment in respect of services performed by persons acting as agents of holders of milling licences in connection with the purchase of such wheat during the sale season,

• (f) fix maximum charges for distribution of sacks to growers of such wheat,

• (g) fix, by reference to any specified matters, prices for such wheat sold by or purchased from persons who have purchased such wheat from growers,

• (h) provide for control during the sale season of the possession, sale, disposal or use of such wheat,

• (i) provide for the granting by the Minister at his absolute discretion of licences and permits for the purposes of the order and for the attachment to such licences and permits of conditions to be complied with by the holders,

• (j) provide for matters ancillary or incidental to the foregoing matters.

• (2) The Minister may by order amend any order under this section (including any order under this subsection).

• (3) The provisions contained in the First Schedule to this Act shall have effect in relation to any sale season appointed under this section.

• (4) There shall be charged, levied and paid on the grant of any licence or permit granted for the purposes of an order under this section such (if any) fee as the Minister for Finance shall from time to time direct.

• (5) All fees charged and levied by virtue of subsection (4) of this section shall be collected and taken in such manner as the Minister for Finance shall from time to time direct and shall be paid into or disposed of for the benefit of the Exchequer in accordance with the directions of that Minister.

• (6) The Public Offices Fees Act, 1879, shall not apply in respect of any fees charged and levied by virtue of subsection (4) of this section.

• (7) An order under this section shall not apply in relation to the purchase or sale of wheat by the Minister.

3 General quota variation orders.

3.—(1) The Minister for Industry and Commerce may, whenever he thinks proper having regard to the expected annual demand for flour and wheaten meal, make a general quota variation order increasing or reducing the quotas for licensed mills by a uniform percentage.

• (2) A general quota variation order shall apply in respect of the quota year current at the time when it is made and every subsequent quota year, but the Minister for Industry and Commerce may at any time by order revoke a general quota variation order and it shall thereupon not apply in respect of any quota year then current or any subsequent quota year.

• (3) Where, as respects a licensed mill, a general quota variation order applies in respect of a quota year, then, in lieu of the existing quota for the mill in respect of that year, that quota as increased or reduced in accordance with the general quota variation order shall be in force.

• (4) In subsection (3) of this section, the reference to the existing quota for a mill in respect of a year shall be construed as a reference to the quota which, apart from the general quota variation order, would be in force for that mill in respect of that year by virtue of the relevant order made (whether before or after the making of the general quota variation order) under subsection (1), (3), (4), (5) or (6) of section 26 of the Agricultural Produce (Cereals) Act, 1933 (No. 7 of 1933).

• (5) Before making an order under this section, the Minister for Industry and Commerce shall consult with the Milling Advisory Committee.

4 Power to relieve from obligation to mill home-grown wheat.

4.—The Minister for Industry and Commerce may, with the concurrence of the Minister, by licence relieve, to such extent and subject to compliance with such conditions as he may specify in the licence, the holder of a milling licence from the obligation to mill an amount of home-grown wheat calculated by reference to the appointed national percentage.

5 Storage of grain.

5.—(1) An inspector may at all reasonable times enter on any grain store and inspect it.

• (2) The Minister or an inspector may, from time to time, serve on the occupier of a grain store a notice requiring him within a specified time to clean (including fumigate), in such manner and by the use of such materials as may be specified in the notice, such grain store and any equipment, fittings and appliances therein or used in connection therewith.

• (3) The Minister or an inspector may, from time to time, serve on the occupier of a grain store a notice requiring him to remove therefrom or render innocuous any specified cause of contamination or deterioration to which grain stored therein would be exposed.

• (4) Where the Minister or an inspector is of opinion that any grain store or any part thereof is unsuitable for the safe storage of grain, he may serve on the occupier of such grain store a notice prohibiting the storage of grain in that grain store or that part thereof.

• (5) Where a notice under subsection (2) or subsection (3) of this section is served on the occupier of a grain store, he shall comply with the notice.

• (6) Where a notice under subsection (4) of this section is served on the occupier of a grain store, he shall not store any grain therein in contravention of the notice.

• (7) In this section—

“grain” means any cereal which is wheat, barley, oats or maize;

“grain store” means any premises or part of premises used or intended to be used for the storage of grain.

6 Method of computing amount of wheat milled at a mill during preliminary quota period and quota years.

6.—Subsection (1) of section 5 of the Agricultural Produce (Cereals) Act, 1935 (No. 26 of 1935), shall, as respects any preliminary period or quota year which is unexpired on the day of the commencement of this Act or begins on or after that day, have effect as if it provided that the amount of wheat milled at the particular licensed mill during that period or year (as the case may be) shall be taken to be an amount of wheat the weight of which is equal to the aggregate of the weights of flour, wheaten meal and other products (including wheaten offals) produced at that mill in that period or year (as the case may be).

7 Extension of section 2 of Agricultural Produce (Cereals) (Amendment) Act, 1937.

7.—A direction under section 2 of the Agricultural Produce (Cereals) (Amendment) Act, 1937 (No. 27 of 1937), may be given in respect of wheat milled into wheaten meal which has been, or is intended to be, used in the manufacture of biscuits by a person engaged in the business of manufacturing biscuits for sale wholesale.

8 Modification of section 9 of Agricultural Produce (Cereals) Act, 1938.

8.—Notwithstanding section 9 of the Agricultural Produce (Cereals) Act, 1938 (No. 16 of 1938) (which prohibits the importation of flour and wheaten meal except under licence), flour and wheaten meal may be imported in consignments of not more than 300 lb. if—

• (a) carried as private effects in passengers' baggage, or

• (b) shown to the satisfaction of the Revenue Commissioners to have been sent by a person who is not a trader dealing in flour or wheaten meal as a gift to a person in the State.

9 Determination of moisture content.

9.—For the purposes of this Act or any order under this Act, the percentage of the moisture content in wheat shall be determined by grinding a representative sample of the wheat and drying it for one hour at a temperature of one hundred and thirty degrees Centigrade.

10 Production by inspector of authorisation.

10.—An inspector, when exercising any of the powers conferred on him by this Act, shall, if so required, produce his authorisation under this Act to any person affected.

11 Offences.

11.—(1) A person who contravenes (whether by act or omission) a provision of this Act, the First Schedule to this Act or any order under this Act shall be guilty of an offence under this section and shall be liable on summary conviction, in the case of a first offence, to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds and, in the case of a second or any subsequent offence, to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds or, at the discretion of the Court, to imprisonment for any term not exceeding six months or both such fine and such imprisonment.

• (2) Any offence under this section may be prosecuted by the Minister as prosecutor.

• (3) Where the holder of a milling licence is convicted of an offence under this section, such holder shall, for the purposes of section 34 of the Agricultural Produce (Cereals) Act, 1933 (No. 7 of 1933), be deemed to have been convicted of an offence under that Act, and the said section 34, as amended by section 13 of the Agricultural Produce (Cereals) Act, 1934 (No. 41 of 1934), shall apply and have effect accordingly.

12 Service of notices.

12.—(1) Any notice under this Act or the First Schedule to this Act may be served on a person—

• (a) by delivering the notice to him, or

• (b) by sending the notice by registered post in an envelope addressed to him at the address at which he ordinarily resides or carries on business.

• (2) For the purpose of subsection (1) of this section, a company registered under the Companies Acts, 1908 to 1924, shall be deemed to carry on business at its registered office and every other body corporate and every unincorporated body shall be deemed to carry on business at its principal office or place of business in the State.

13 Laying of orders before Houses of the Oireachtas.

13.—Every order made 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 order is passed by either such House within the next subsequent twenty-one days on which that House has sat after the order is laid before it, the order shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under the order.

14 Expenses.

14.—The expenses incurred by the Minister or the Minister for Industry and Commerce in the administration of this Act shall, to such extent as may be sanctioned by the Minister for Finance, be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.

15 Repeals.

15.—The enactments set out in the second column of the Second Schedule to this Act are hereby repealed to the extent mentioned in the third column of that Schedule.

16 Short title, commencement and collective citation.

16.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Agricultural Produce (Cereals) (Amendment) Act, 1956.

• (2) This Act shall come into operation on such day as the Minister appoints by order.

• (3) The Acts and this Act may be cited together as the Agricultural Produce (Cereals) Acts, 1933 to 1956.

FIRST SCHEDULE. Provisions having effect in relation to a Sale Season.

“the sale season” means the sale season appointed by the relevant order under section 2 of this Act;

“wheat” means home-grown millable wheat harvested in the year in which that order was made;

“authorised wheat purchaser” means a person authorised by that order to purchase wheat from the grower thereof;

“licensed agent” means a person authorised by licence under that order to act as agent for the purchase of wheat.

• (a) the moisture content of the wheat was, at the time of the sale, not more than sixteen per cent., and

• (b) the wheat has been kept properly stored by him.

• (2) Where the moisture content of wheat at the time of sale exceeds sixteen per cent., by not more than one-fifth of one per cent., it shall for the purpose of subparagraph (1) of this paragraph be regarded at that time as sixteen per cent.

• (3) A person shall not, during the sale season, sell or offer for sale, as seed, any wheat the germination of which for the time being is less than eighty-eight per cent.

• (2) Every person who owns, or is employed in connection with, any business carried on in any premises on which wheat is stored, whether for sale or otherwise, shall afford to an inspector all reasonable facilities for the inspection and measurement of any stocks of wheat on the premises.

• (2) The Minister may, whenever and so often as he thinks fit, serve on any licensed agent a notice requiring him to keep such records of purchases of wheat in respect of which he acts as agent as may be specified in the notice.

• (3) The Minister may, whenever and so often as he thinks fit, serve on any authorised wheat purchaser a notice requiring him to furnish to the Minister, at such times as may be specified in the notice, periodical or other returns containing such particulars in relation to purchases and sales of wheat by him as may be specified in the notice.

• (4) The Minister may, whenever and so often as he thinks fit, serve on any licensed agent a notice requiring him to furnish to the Minister, at such times as may be specified in the notice, periodical or other returns containing such particulars in relation to purchases of wheat in respect of which he acts as agent as may be specified in the notice.

• (5) A notice under subparagraph (3) or subparagraph (4) of this paragraph may require any return thereunder to be in a form specified in the notice.

• (6) Where a notice under this paragraph is served on a person, he shall comply with the notice.

• (7) Every record kept in pursuance of a notice under this paragraph may be inspected at all reasonable times by an inspector and the person liable to keep the record and every person employed by him shall produce for inspection on demand the record and also all invoices, consignment notes, receipts and other documents (including copies thereof where the originals are not available) reasonably demanded by the inspector for the purpose of verifying any record or explaining any omission from the record.

SECOND SCHEDULE. Enactments Repealed.