Civil Defence Act 2002

PART 1 Preliminary and General

1 Short title and commencement.

1.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Civil Defence Act, 2002.

(2) This Act and the Air-Raid Precautions Acts, 1939 and 1946, may be cited together as the Civil Defence Acts, 1939 to 2002.

(3) This Act shall come into operation on such day or days as the Minister may appoint by order or orders either generally or with reference to any particular purpose or provision and different days may be so appointed for different purposes or different provisions.

2 Interpretation.

2.—(1) In this Act, except where the context otherwise requires—

“Act of 1939” means the Air-Raid Precautions Act, 1939;

“Act of 2001” means the Local Government Act, 2001;

“Board” means the Civil Defence Board established under section 7;

“chairperson” means a member of the Board designated under section 11(4);

“civil defence” has the same meaning as in the Protocol, additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I) adopted at Geneva on 8 June 1977—

(a) the text of which Protocol is set out in the Fifth Schedule (inserted by the Geneva Conventions (Amendment) Act, 1998) to the Geneva Conventions Act, 1962, and

(b) the definition of civil defence in that Protocol is set out for convenience of reference in Schedule 1;

“civil defence plan” means a civil defence plan prepared by a local authority under section 31;

“civil defence member” means a person who is registered in the Register of Civil Defence Members under section 35;

“committee” means a committee established under section 28;

“director general” means the chief executive officer of the Board appointed under section 14;

“emergency services” includes the Gardaí Síochána, the Irish Coast Guard, local authorities and the health services of the State;

“establishment day” means the day appointed by the Minister under section 6 to be the establishment day for the purposes of this Act;

“equipment” means all or part of—

(a) any ship, boat or other vessel,

(b) stores, vehicles or appliances,

(c) clothing, or

(d) any material, constructed, designed or intended for use for the purposes of civil defence;

“local authority” means a county council or a city council which performs functions relating to civil defence;

“Minister” means the Minister for Defence;

“prescribed” means prescribed by regulations made by the Minister;

“register” means the Civil Defence Register established under section 35;

“strategic plan” means the strategic plan of the Board under section 30.

(2) The financial year of the Board shall be the period of 12 months ending on 31 December in any year and for the purposes of this Act the period commencing on the establishment day and ending on the following 31 December is deemed to be a financial year.

(3) In this Act—

(a) a reference to a Chapter, section or Schedule is a reference to a Chapter or section of, or Schedule to, this Act, unless it is indicated that a reference to some other enactment is intended,

(b) a reference to a subsection, paragraph or subparagraph is a reference to the subsection, paragraph or subparagraph of the provision in which the reference occurs, unless it is indicated that a reference to some other provision is intended,

(c) a reference to any enactment shall be construed as a reference to that enactment as amended by or under any other enactment, including this Act, and

(d) a reference to the performance of functions includes, with respect to powers and duties, a reference to the exercise of powers and the carrying out of duties.

3 Expenses.

3.—The expenses incurred by the Minister in administering this Act, shall, to such extent as may be sanctioned by the Minister for Finance, be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.

4 Regulations and orders.

4.—(1) The Minister may make regulations—

(a) prescribing any matter referred to in this Act as prescribed or to be prescribed or in relation to any matter referred to in this Act as the subject of regulations, and

(b) for the purposes of, and for the purposes of giving full effect to, this Act.

(2) Regulations under this Act may—

(a) include any incidental, supplementary and consequential provisions that appear to the Minister to be necessary or expedient,

(b) apply either generally or to a specified class or classes of persons or to any other matter that the Minister may consider to be appropriate, or

(c) include different provisions in relation to different classes of person.

(3) Every regulation made by the Minister under this Act shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as practicable after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the regulation is passed by either House within the next 21 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 under the regulation.

(4) The Minister may be order amend or revoke an order made by him or her under this Act (other than an order under section 1(3) or 6), including an order under this subsection.

(5) Where it is proposed to make an order under section 8(4) or 13(5), or an order amending or revoking such an order, a draft of the order shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas and the order shall not be made unless a resolution approving of the draft order has been passed by each House.

5 Offences.

5.—(1) A person guilty of an offence under section 18 or 19 shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding €1,900.

(2) Proceedings for an offence under section 18 or 19 may be brought and prosecuted by the Minister.

(3) Where an offence under this Act is committed by a body corporate and is proved to have been committed with the consent, connivance or approval of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of any director, manager, secretary or other officer of the body corporate or any other person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, that officer or person as well as the body corporate shall be guilty of an offence and be liable to be proceeded against and punished as if he or she were guilty of the first-mentioned offence.

(4) Notwithstanding section 10(4) of the Petty Sessions (Ireland) Act, 1851, summary proceedings for an offence under this Act may be instituted within 12 months from the date on which the offence was committed.

PART 2 Civil Defence Board

Chapter 1 The Board: General Provisions

6 Establishment day.

6.—The Minister shall by order appoint a day to be the establishment day for the purposes of this Act.

7 Establishment of Board.

7.—(1) There shall stand established on the establishment day a body to be known as the Civil Defence Board or, in the Irish language, an Bord Cosanta Sibhialta, to perform the functions conferred on it by or under this Act.

(2) The Board shall be a body corporate with perpetual succession and an official seal and with power—

(a) to sue and be sued in its corporate name, and

(b) with the consent of the Minister, to hold and dispose of land or an interest in land, and to acquire, hold and dispose of any other property.

(3) Schedule 2 applies to the Board.

8 Functions of Board.

8.—(1) The functions of the Board are—

(a) to promote and support the development at national level of civil defence planning and management and, in co-operation with local authorities, to facilitate the implementation of civil defence measures for the purposes of emergency relief and support;

(b) to promote, develop and maintain civil defence as an effective voluntary service in support of the emergency services;

(c) to promote the role of civil defence in providing services, in support of the emergency services, to the local community and, for that purpose, to develop programmes designed to enhance those services;

(d) with regard to local authorities, to promote co-operation and the co-ordination of their activities with other local authorities, so as to ensure efficiency and economy in performing their functions relating to civil defence;

(e) having regard to any plans, howsoever described, relating to the management of emergencies at national level that are prepared and adopted by any Minister of the Government, State agencies or other bodies whose activities relate to civil defence, to establish and promote the development, maintenance and improvement of standards of—

(i) programmes of civil defence education and training including programmes relating to health and safety,

(ii) knowledge, skill and competence of those participating in implementing civil defence measures, and

(iii) equipment used for civil defence;

(f) to promote public awareness and the dissemination of coordinated information to the public in relation to civil defence and to conduct public information programmes relating to preventive measures aimed at alleviating the effects of emergencies on persons or property;

(g) to prepare and adopt, in accordance with section 30, a strategic plan relating to the future development of civil defence and to monitor the implementation of the plan;

(h) to advise the Minister in relation to all or any of the following:

(i) such policy matters relating to the operation and future development of civil defence as the Minister may request or as the Board considers appropriate;

(ii) the implementation of measures considered necessary for the effective operation of civil defence;

(iii) any other matter relating to the Board's functions as the Board considers appropriate or as requested by the Minister;

(i) to conduct and commission research on matters relating to the functions of the Board and for this purpose—

(i) to foster and promote contacts and the exchange of information with educational and research establishments and other bodies involved in civil defence in and outside the State, and

(ii) as it considers appropriate, to publish, in the form and manner that the Board thinks fit, results arising out of that research;

(j) in conjunction with Ministers of the Government, State agencies or other bodies whose activities relate to civil defence, having regard to any plans referred to in paragraph (e), to contribute to the development, in co-operation with other states, of civil defence measures;

(k) in co-operation with local authorities, to promote the recruitment of persons to perform civil defence tasks and to establish procedures for the registration of those persons;

(l) to establish, review and maintain codes of professional conduct for civil defence members;

(m) to advise such persons as the Minister may from time to time specify on any matter relating to the Board's functions;

(n) to advise and assist the director general in performing his or her functions;

(o) to comply with any general policy directives that the Minister may, from time to time, give to the Board;

(p) to perform any additional functions conferred on the Board by order under subsection (4).

(2) The Board has all such powers as are necessary for or incidental to the performance of its functions.

(3) Without prejudice to the generality of paragraph (c) of subsection (1), the programmes referred to in that paragraph may include the programmes specified in Schedule 3.

(4) The Minister may, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, and after consultation with such other Ministers of the Government (if any) as he or she considers appropriate, by order—

(a) confer on the Board additional functions connected with the functions for the time being of the Board, as the Minister considers appropriate, subject to the conditions (if any) that may be specified in the order, and

(b) make such provision as he or she considers necessary or expedient in relation to matters ancillary to or arising out of the conferral of those additional functions.

9 Transfer of functions.

9.—(1) The functions of the Minister under—

(a) the provisions of sections 60 and 61 of the Act of 1939, and

(b) the provisions of any scheme made by the Minister under section 64 of the Act of 1939 that is in force immediately before the coming into operation of this section,

are hereby transferred to the Board and references in those provisions to the Minister shall be read as references to the Board.

(2) Regulations shall not be made by the Board under section 61 of the Act of 1939 except with the consent of the Minister.

10 Transfer of functions to Minister by Government order.

10.—(1) (a) The Government may by order transfer to the Minister a function or functions of the Board where, in the opinion of the Government, there is an emergency or apprehended emergency that involves a serious risk to persons or property of such a nature or magnitude that it is necessary and expedient that the function be performed by the Minister.

(b) The Government may by order amend or revoke an order under this subsection (including an order under this paragraph).

(c) If a provision of an order under this subsection that transfers a function is revoked, the function shall thereupon become and be vested in the Board.

(2) (a) An order under this section may contain such ancillary, subsidiary and incidental provisions as the Government may determine, including provision for the transfer of property, rights and liabilities associated with a function or functions so transferred.

(b) Without prejudice to the generality of paragraph (a), an order under this section may—

(i) specify terms, conditions and restrictions upon and subject to which a function transferred by the order is to be performed by the Minister,

(ii) provide for the use by the Minister of the services of the staff of the Board,

(iii) provide for such financial arrangements and adjustments between the Board and the Minister as are considered proper by the Government,

(iv) provide for such other matters as are considered by the Government to be necessary to enable the transfer of a function to which the order relates to have full effect and to enable the function to be performed by the Minister.

11 Membership of Board.

11.—(1) The Board shall consist of at least 8 but not more than 14 members who shall be appointed by the Minister.

(2) The members of the Board shall be—

(a) the director general,

(b) a person nominated by the County and City Managers Association,

(c) 4 persons who, in the opinion of the Minister, have experience in business, industry, finance or administration relevant to the Board's functions,

(d) a person nominated by the Minister for the Environment and Local Government who, in the opinion of that Minister, has relevant experience or expertise relating to emergency planning,

(e) a person nominated by the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland,

(f) a person nominated by the Environmental Protection Agency,

(g) a member of the Civil Defence Officers Association nominated by it,

(h) an officer of the Defence Forces nominated by the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces,

(i) a member of the Garda Síochána nominated by the Commissioner of the Garda Síochána, and

(j) subject to subsection (5)—

(i) a volunteer member of civil defence, and

(ii) a member of the staff of the Board.

(3) In making appointments to the Board under this section, the Minister shall ensure that not less than 4 of the members of the Board shall be women and not less than 4 shall be men.

(4) The Minister shall designate one member of the Board as chairperson.

(5) In the case of the first Board, the Minister shall appoint the members referred to in subsection (2)(j) and in the case of each subsequent Board those members shall be appointed by the Minister after being elected in accordance with the procedures for election prescribed by the Board, with the consent of the Minister.

(6) The Board shall prescribe the procedures referred to in subsection (5) and when prescribing those procedures shall—

(a) specify the class or classes of person entitled—

(i) to seek election to the Board, and

(ii) to nominate a candidate for election to the Board or to vote in an election,

and

(b) have regard to the desirability of an appropriate gender balance as the Board may determine, from time to time.

12 Chairperson.

12.—(1) The term of office of the chairperson shall be 3 years.

(2) A chairperson who ceases to hold office also ceases to be a member of the Board.

(3) The chairperson may resign by letter sent to the Minister and the resignation shall, unless previously withdrawn in writing, take effect at the commencement of the meeting of the Board held next after the Board has been informed by the Minister of the resignation.

(4) Unless he or she sooner dies or otherwise ceases to be chairperson under subsection (2) or (3), the chairperson holds office until the end of his or her term of office and, if reappointed as a member of the Board, is eligible to be reappointed as chairperson.

13 Removal of members of Board from office.

13.—(1) Where the Minister is of the opinion that the Board has failed, neglected or refused to perform a function conferred on it under this Act or has failed effectively to perform such function or otherwise has contravened this Act, the Minister, after first advising the Board of that opinion and considering any explanation given in response, may appoint a person to inquire into any matter giving rise to that opinion.

(2) A person appointed under subsection (1) shall—

(a) inquire into the matters giving rise to the Minister's opinion and any related matter and report to the Minister on the findings of the inquiry.

(b) for the purposes of this section, be entitled at all reasonable times to enter the premises of the Board to inquire into the affairs of the Board or to conduct an inspection of the premises, equipment and records where the inspection is, in that person's opinion, relevant to the inquiry, and