CASUAL TRADING ACT, 1980

Type Act
Publication 1980-12-24
Last updated 1995-07-18
State Repealed superseded text
Text As published
articles 21

This is the act as published. Later amendments are not folded into the text below: each one is a separate act in this repository and an entry in this law's history.

2 amending acts · 1995-07-18, CASUAL TRADING ACT, 1995

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AN ACT TO PROVIDE FOR THE CONTROL AND REGULATION OF CASUAL TRADING AND TO PROVIDE FOR CONNECTED MATTERS. [24th December, 1980]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:

1 Definitions.

1.—In this Act—

“authorised officer” means a person appointed under section 11 of this Act to be an authorised officer;

“casual trading area” means land standing designated under section 7 of this Act as an area where casual trading may be carried on;

“casual trading licence” means a licence granted under section 4 of this Act;

“casual trading permit” means a permit granted under section 5 of this Act;

“local authority” means the council of a county, the corporation of a county or other borough or the council of an urban district;

“market right” means a right conferred by franchise or statute to hold a fair or market, that is to say, a concourse of buyers and sellers to dispose of commodities;

“the Minister” means the Minister for Industry, Commerce and Tourism;

“selling” includes agreeing or offering to sell or inviting an offer to buy.

2 Casual trading.

2.—(1) Subject to subsection (2) of this section, “casual trading” means selling goods by retail at a place (including a public road) to which the public have access as of right or at any other place that is a casual trading area.

3 Restriction on casual trading.

3.—(1) A person shall not engage in casual trading in a casual trading area unless he is, or is the servant or agent acting as such of, a person who holds a casual trading licence and a casual trading permit that are for the time being in force and the casual trading is in accordance with the licence and the permit.

4 Casual trading licences.

4.—(1) Subject to the subsequent provisions of this section the Minister shall, on the application in writing of a person therefor and on payment of a fee of £100, grant to the person a licence (referred to in this Act as “a casual trading licence”), in such form and specifying such matters as the Minister may determine, authorising the person to engage in casual trading.

the amount of the fee payable under subsection (1) of this section on the application for the licence shall be £5.

5 Casual trading permits.

5.—(1) (a) Where there is a casual trading area in the functional area of a local authority, then, subject to the subsequent provisions of this section, a local authority shall, on the application in writing therefor of a person who is the holder of a casual trading licence for the time being in force and on payment of a fee of £20, grant to the person a permit (referred to in this Act as “a casual trading permit”), in such form and specifying such matters as the local authority may determine, authorising the person to engage in casual trading at one place only in one specified casual trading area in the functional area of the authority on specified days.

6 Display of casual trading permits and casual trading licences.

6.—(1) A person engaging in casual trading in a casual trading area shall display the casual trading permit relating to the trading in such a position at the place where he is carrying on the trading as to be clearly visible and easily legible to members of the public at the place.

7 Designation of casual trading areas.

7.—(1) (a) A local authority may designate—

as a place where casual trading may be carried on (in this Act referred to as “a casual trading area”) and may revoke a designation under this subsection.

  • “(hh) development consisting of the use of land for the purposes of a casual trading area (within the meaning of the Casual Trading Act, 1980);”.

8 Acquisition of market rights by local authority.

8.—(1) A local authority may acquire any market right in respect of a market or fair in its functional area by agreement or compulsorily.

9 Powers of local authorities in relation to market rights owned by them.

9.—(1) A local authority may carry on, manage and regulate a market or fair to which a market right owned by it relates as if it were a market established by it under the Public Health (Ireland) Act, 1878, and shall have all such powers as may be necessary for those purposes.

10 Prohibition of false information and alteration of permits or licences.

10.—(1) A person shall not give false information to the Minister in relation to an application for the grant of a casual trading licence.

11 Powers of authorised officers and Garda Síochána.

11.—(1) (a) The Minister may appoint officers of the Minister to be authorised officers for the purposes of this Act.

12 Further powers of Garda Síochána.

12.—(1) A member of the Garda Síochána may, without warrant, arrest a person whom he has reasonable cause to believe to be contravening a provision of this Act at any place and may seize and remove any goods which he is selling or has in his possession for sale at the place.

13 Disposal of goods seized by Garda Síochána.

13.—(1) Whenever any goods are seized and removed under this Act by a member of the Garda Síochána, the Commissioner may in the case of perishable goods not less than twelve hours and in the case of any other goods not less than three days after the seizure cause the goods to be sold and shall out of the proceeds of such sale defray all expenses incurred in the seizure, removal, storage and sale of the goods and shall pay the surplus of such proceeds to the person who at the time of the seizure was the owner of the goods.

14 Registers of licences and permits.

14.—(1) The Minister shall establish and maintain a register (which shall be known as the Register of Casual Trading Licences) of the casual trading licences granted under this Act containing such particulars (including particulars in relation to the revocation of such licences) as the Minister may consider appropriate.

15 Penalties.

15.—(1) A person guilty of an offence under section 3 of this Act shall be liable, on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding £5,000 together with, in the case of a continuing offence, a fine not exceeding £250 for each day or part of a day on which the offence is continued after the first such day or, at the discretion of the court, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both the fine or fines and the imprisonment.

16 Offences by bodies corporate.

16.—Where an offence under this Act is committed by a body corporate and the offence is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to have been attributable to any neglect on the part of, any person who, when the offence was committed, was a director, member of the committee of management or other controlling authority of the body concerned, or the manager, secretary or other officer of the body, that person shall also be deemed to have committed the offence and may be proceeded against and punished accordingly.

17 Amendment of Occasional Trading Act, 1979.

17.—Section 2 (2) of the Occasional Trading Act, 1979, is hereby amended by the substitution of the following paragraph for paragraph (i):

  • “(i) selling in respect of which it is shown by the seller—

  • (i) that any profits therefrom are for use for charitable purposes or for other purposes from which no private profit is derived, and

  • (ii) that no remuneration, emolument, gain or profit will accrue to the seller or his servants or agents therefrom.”.

18 Laying of regulations.

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

19 Repeals.

19.—(1) The Pedlars Act, 1871, the Hawkers Act, 1888, and the Street Trading Act, 1926, are hereby repealed insofar as they apply in relation to casual trading and occasional trading within the meaning of the Occasional Trading Act, 1979.

whichever should first happen and, as respects a person who immediately before such commencement was the holder of a street trader's certificate under that Act for the time being in force in respect of the area, notwithstanding subsection (2) of this section, the said subsection (2) shall not apply in relation to the person in so far as he was such holder.

20 Expenses.

20.—The expenses incurred by the Minister and the Minister for the Environment 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.

21 Short title and commencement.

21.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Casual Trading Act, 1980.

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