No. 27/1957:

TOURIST TRAFFIC ACT, 1957

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

1 Construction.

2 Extension of time limit on giving guarantees under Part III of Act of 1952.

3 Grants by the Board for interest charges on certain loans.

4 Grants to local authorities and local development companies.

5 Motor hotels.

6 Fee in the case of amended application for registration.

7 Application for registration after refusal or cancellation of registration.

8 Extension of references to premises.

9 Publication of lists of unregistered premises.

10 Miscellaneous amendments of Act of 1939.

11 Short title and collective citation.

AN ACT TO AMEND THE TOURIST TRAFFIC ACTS, 1939 TO 1955.

[17th December, 1957]

BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:—

1.—(1) In this Act—

"the Act of 1939" means the Tourist Traffic Act, 1939 (No. 24 of 1939);

"the Act of 1952" means the Tourist Traffic Act, 1952 (No. 15 of 1952);

"the Board" means Bord Fáilte Éireann;

"the Minister" means the Minister for Industry and Commerce.

(2) The Tourist Traffic Acts, 1939 to 1955, and this Act shall be construed as one.

2.—(1) Section 21 of the Act of 1952 (which relates to the time limit on the giving of guarantees under Part III of that Act) is hereby amended by the substitution of "ten years from the passing of this Act" for "five years from the passing of this Act".

(2) Subsection (1) of this section shall be deemed to have come into operation on the 3rd day of July, 1957, and, accordingly, anything which was effected on or after that day and before the passing of this Act and which purported to be in pursuance of any provision contained in Part III of the Act of 1952 shall be deemed to be and always to have been valid and proper and shall be regarded as having been effected in pursuance of that provision.

3.—(1) The Board may, at its discretion, make grants towards the payment of interest on loans obtained after the passing of this Act otherwise than under a guarantee given under Part III of the Act of 1952 and utilised for the construction, extension, modernisation or improvement of holiday accommodation.

(2) The aggregate amount of grants made by the Board under this section in any financial year shall not, when added to the aggregate amount of grants made by the Board under Part III of the Act of 1952 in that year, exceed seventy-five thousand pounds.

4.—Paragraph ( c ) of subsection (2) of section 5 (which relates to the functions of the Board) of the Act of 1952 shall be construed as enabling the Board to make grants for the purposes mentioned in that paragraph to—

( a ) local authorities, and

( b ) companies formed under the Companies Acts, 1908 to 1924 having the object of providing amenities and facilities at tourist resorts and developing tourist traffic at or to such resorts.

5.—(1) The Act of 1939 is hereby amended as follows:

(i) by the addition to subsection (1) of section 24 (which relates to the registers to be maintained by the Board) of the following paragraph:

"( f ) a register to be called and known and in this Act referred to as the register of motor hotels";

(ii) by the addition to section 25 (which relates to the eligibility of premises for registration) of the following paragraph:

"( f ) the general character, the type of accommodation and service provided, and the other qualifications which shall be requisite in respect of any premises in order that such premises may be eligible for registration in the register of motor hotels.";

(iii) by the insertion after section 37 of the following section:

"37A.—(1) It shall not be lawful for the proprietor or occupier of any premises to describe or hold out or permit any person to describe or hold out such premises—

( a ) as a motor hotel,

( b ) as a motel,

( c ) as a coach hotel,

( d ) as a motor inn,

( e ) as a motor court,

( f ) as a tourist court, or

( g ) as being of any other description prescribed for the purposes of this section,

unless such premises are registered in the register of motor hotels and such proprietor or occupier is registered in that register as the registered proprietor of such premises.

(2) Any person who acts in contravention of this section shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds together with, in the case of a continuing offence, a further fine not exceeding two pounds for every day during which the offence is continued.

(3) This section shall come into operation on such day as may be appointed in that behalf by order of the Minister.";

(iv) by the insertion in subsection (1) of section 45 (which relates to the publication by the Board of an annual list of registered premises) after "youth hostels" of "premises registered in the register of motor hotels".

(2) Section 5 of the Act of 1952 is hereby amended by the insertion in paragraph ( a ) of subsection (2) after "holiday hostels," of it "motor hotels".

6.—Where—

( a ) an application for registration is made to the Board under section 26 of the Act of 1939, and

( b ) before a decision on the application has been reached by the Board, the application is amended so as to be for registration in a different register,

the fee paid in connection with the original application shall be applied by the Board towards the amount of the fee required under paragraph (c) of subsection (2) of the said section 26 to accompany an application for registration in such different register.

7.—Where—

( a ) an application for registration is refused by the Board under paragraph (b) or paragraph ( d ) of subsection (3) of section 27 of the Act of 1939,

( b ) an application for the renewal of registration is refused by the Board under paragraph ( b ) or paragraph ( d ) of subsection (4) of section 30 of the Act of 1939, or

( c ) a registration is cancelled by the Board under paragraph (b) or paragraph (d) of subsection (3) of section 32 of the Act of 1952,

no application for registration of the premises in the same register by the Board may be made during the period of nine months commencing on the day of the refusal or cancellation.

8.—In Part III of the Act of 1939 and Part IV of the Act of 1952, any reference to premises shall, in a case in which there is both a main building used or intended to be used to provide accommodation or service for guests and one or more annexes or other supplementary structures to the main building used or intended to be used to provide such accommodation or service, be construed as including both a reference to the main building and a reference to such one or more annexes or supplementary structures.

9.—(1) Subject to subsection (2) of this section, the Board may, whenever and so often as it thinks fit, publish or cause to be published a list of premises which provide accommodation for tourists but which are not registered by the Board, and may include in any such list in respect of any premises mentioned therein such information as the Board thinks proper in relation to the accommodation available, the charges made therefor and any other matters of interest to tourist.

(2) No premises shall be included in a list published pursuant to subsection (1) of this section except at the request or with the consent of the proprietor of the premises, and no information shall be given in any such list in relation to any premises mentioned therein save with the consent of the proprietor of the premises.

10.—(1) Section 29 of the Act of 1939 is hereby amended by the deletion in subsection (1) of "in the month of October" and "in the month of November" and the substitution therefor, respectively, of "on or before the 15th day of October" and "on or before the 15th day of November"

(2) Subsection (2) of section 33, subsection (2) of section 34, subsection (2) of section 35, subsection (2) of section 36 and subsection (2) of section 37 of the Act of 1939 are hereby amended by the addition at the end of each subsection of "together with, in the case of a continuing offence, a fine not exceeding two pounds for every day during which the offence is continued"

(3) Section 41 of the Act of 1939 is hereby amended as follows:

( a ) in subsection (1) for "An inspector" there shall be substituted "A registration officer" and for "inspector" wherever else occurring there shall be substituted "registration officer ",

( b ) in subsection (2) for "an inspector" wherever occurring there shall be substituted "a registration officer" and for "such inspector" there shall be substituted "such registration officer",

( c ) the following subsection shall be substituted for subsection (3):

"(3) In this section the expression 'registration officer' means an officer of the Board appointed in writing by the Board to be a registration officer for the purposes of this section"

11.—(1) This Act may be cited as the Tourist Traffic Act, 1957 .

(2) The Tourist Traffic Acts, 1939 to 1955, and this Act may be cited together as the Tourist Traffic Acts, 1939 to 1957.