No. 16/1926:

THE PROTECTION OF THE COMMUNITY (SPECIAL POWERS) ACT, 1926

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

1 Proclamation of national emergency.

2 Making of regulations pursuant to proclamation.

3 Short title.

AN ACT TO CONFER ON THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL SPECIAL POWERS FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE COMMUNITY AND ENSURING THE DUE SUPPLY AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE ESSENTIALS OF LIFE DURING NATIONAL EMERGENCIES.

[17th May, 1926.]

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

1.—(1) If at any time the Executive Council is of opinion that a national emergency has arisen of such character that it is expedient in the public interest that extraordinary measures should be taken to ensure the due supply and distribution of the essentials of life to the community, the Executive Council may by proclamation declare that a state of national emergency exists.

(2) A proclamation made under this Act shall (unless continued under this section) remain in force for one month only and shall then expire, but any such proclamation may from time to time be continued for one month by proclamation made by the Executive Council before the expiration of the original proclamation or the last continuance thereof.

(3) If at any time when a proclamation (whether original or continuing) is made under this Act, the Oireachtas or either House thereof stands adjourned to a day and hour more than five days after the making of the proclamation, the proclamation shall be expressed and shall operate to summon the Oireachtas or such House thereof (as the case may be) to reassemble at a convenient hour to be specified in the proclamation on a convenient day to be similarly specified not less than three nor more than five days after the making of the proclamation, and in every such case the Oireachtas or such House thereof, as the case may be, shall reassemble on the day and at the hour so specified as if it had stood adjourned to that day and hour.

2.—(1) Whenever a proclamation is made by the Executive Council under this Act, the Executive Council may while such proclamation remains in force make by order such regulations as they shall think proper for—

( a ) ensuring the due supply and distribution of the essentials of life to the community,

( b ) restricting the accumulation by unauthorised persons of undue stocks of food, fuel, or other necessaries,

( c ) preventing the withholding of any such necessaries from the community,

( d ) regulating and controlling the prices charged by traders (whether wholesale or retail), distributors, and others for any such necessaries or for the carriage or distribution thereof,

( e ) conferring on such persons (whether in the service or not in the service of the State) as the Executive Council shall think proper such powers and authorities for the carrying out and enforcement of the regulations as the Executive Council shall think proper,

( f ) providing for any matter or thing ancillary or incidental to any of the matters aforesaid and in particular any matter or thing necessary for or incidental to the regulation and control of the supply and distribution of food, fuel, and other necessaries to the community,

( g ) providing that any breach or contravention of any such regulation shall be an offence triable summarily and prescribing the punishments which may be inflicted by courts of summary jurisdiction on persons convicted by such courts of any such offence but so that no such punishment shall exceed imprisonment with or without hard labour for a term of six months or a fine of fifty pounds or both such imprisonment and such fine, together with, in any case, forfeiture of any money or goods in respect of which the offence was committed.

(2) All regulations made under this section shall while they remain in force have effect as if enacted in this Act, but no such regulation shall continue in force after the expiration of the proclamation pursuant to which it is made save so far as may be necessary for the trial under the regulation of persons accused of having committed before the expiration of the proclamation a breach or contravention of the regulation and for the punishment of such persons (if convicted) under and in accordance with the regulation.

(3) Every regulation made under this section shall be forthwith published in the Iris Oifigiúil and shall also be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and if either such House shall, within the next subsequent twenty-one days on which that House has sat, 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.

3.—This Act may be cited as the Protection of the Community (Special Powers) Act, 1926 .