No. 22/1931:

PUBLIC HEALTH (LOUTH AND MEATH SHELLFISH LAYINGS) REGULATIONS, 1931.

PUBLIC HEALTH (LOUTH AND MEATH SHELLFISH LAYINGS) REGULATIONS, 1931.

DEPARTMENT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC HEALTH.

THE PUBLIC HEALTH (REGULATIONS AS TO FOOD) ACT, 1907.

WHEREAS by Section 1 of the Public Health (Regulations as to Food) Act, 1907, the Minister for Local Government and Public Health (hereinafter referred to as "the Minister") is empowered to make regulations authorising measures to be taken for the prevention of danger arising to public health from the importation, preparation, storage and distribution of articles of food or drink (other than drugs or water) intended for sale for human consumption:

AND WHEREAS the Minister is satisfied that for the prevention of danger arising to public health it is necessary to make the regulations hereinafter appearing with respect to the distribution for sale for human consumption of shellfish brought from the layings specified in the Schedule to these regulations:

NOW THEREFORE, the Minister in exercise of the powers vested in him by the Public Health (Ireland) Acts, 1878 to 1919, the Public Health Act, 1896, and the Public Health (Regulations as to Food) Act, 1907, and of all other statutes in that behalf enabling him, does by this his Order, make the following regulations, that is to say:—

1. (i) These Regulations may be cited as the Public Health (Louth and Meath Shellfish Layings) Regulations, 1931, and shall come into operation on the First day of May, 1931, unless otherwise provided herein.

(ii) From and after the date on which these Regulations shall come into operation the Public Health (Louth and Meath Shellfish Layings) Regulations, 1930, shall cease to have effect, but such cesser shall be without prejudice to any act, matter or thing done or remaining to be done thereunder.

2. In these Regulations—

(i) the expression "the Sanitary Authority" means an urban district council, a board of public health, a board of health and public assistance or a port sanitary authority, as the case may require;

(ii) the expression "the District" means the District of a Sanitary Authority;

(iii) the expression "Medical Officer of Health" means a County Medical Officer of Health, or Medical Superintendent Officer of Health; or where there is no such officer, a Medical Officer of Health of a Dispensary District, as the case may be;

(iv) the expression "shellfish" means oysters, mussels and cockles;

(v) the expression "laying" means any foreshore, bed, laying, pond, pit, ledge, float, or other place where shellfish are taken or deposited, but does not include any site for the deposit of shellfish approved by a Medical Officer of Health under Regulation No. 4 of these Regulations;

(vi) the expression "private laying" means a laying where shellfish are not habitually taken or deposited except by the owner of the laying or his tenant or persons authorised by the owner or tenant;

(vii) the expression "public laying" includes any laying which is not a private laying.

3. These Regulations shall be executed and enforced by every Sanitary Authority, by the Medical Officer of Health, and where the circumstances so require, by any other officer of a Sanitary Authority.

4. No shellfish brought from any of the layings specified in the Schedule hereunto annexed shall be distributed for sale for human consumption unless the shellfish shall, to the satisfaction of the Sanitary Authority in whose district the layings or any of them are situate, have been thoroughly washed and relaid in sterilised water for not less than two nights of twelve hours each, or in clean water for a continuous period of not less than ten days in a site approved by the medical officer of health.

5.—(1) As soon as practicable after the date of these Regulations the Sanitary Authority of the District in which the layings specified in the Schedule hereunto annexed or any of them are situate shall cause notice of the effect of these Regulations to be served, either personally or by post, on every person known to the Sanitary Authority to be a person interested in the laying or the collection of shellfish from such laying, if it be a public laying, and on the owner, if any, and on the occupier, if any, of any such laying if it be a private laying.

(2) Such Sanitary Authority shall also if any laying specified in the Schedule hereunto annexed is a public laying—

(a) publish a notice containing a sufficient statement of the terms of these Regulations in one or more newspapers circulating in their District; and

(b) cause warning notices containing a sufficient statement of the terms of these Regulations to be posted in conspicuous places in the vicinity of the laying.

6.—(1) Any person who after the coming into operation of these Regulations, for human consumption sells, or exposes, or distributes, or offers for sale, or has in his possession for the purpose of sale, any shellfish brought from the layings specified in the Schedule hereunto annexed, which have not been treated as required by Regulation 4 hereof, shall be deemed to be acting in contravention of these Regulations.

(2) Before proceedings are instituted against any person for a breach of these Regulations, the Sanitary Authority shall afford him an opportunity of furnishing an explanation in writing or otherwise, as they may appoint, and shall duly consider any such explanation and all the circumstances of the case.

(3) A person shall not be liable under this Regulation if he did not know and could not with reasonable diligence have ascertained that the shellfish in question were derived from a laying specified in the Schedule hereunto annexed.

7. A Sanitary Authority may require any person within their District who has in his possession shellfish intended for sale for human consumption suspected to have been brought from any of the layings specified in the Schedule hereunto annexed, to furnish to the Medical Officer of Health of the Sanitary Authority, a list of all the layings so far as such person can, with the exercise of due diligence, ascertain the same, from which his supply of shellfish is derived or has been derived during the six weeks preceding the date of the requisition on the Sanitary Authority, and if the supply or any part of it is obtained through any other person, the Sanitary Authority may make a similar requisition upon that person, and it shall be the duty of any person upon whom a requisition is made under this Regulation to comply with such requisition.

GIVEN under the Official Seal of the Minister for Local Government and Public Health, this Twenty-second day of April, One Thousand Nine Hundred and Thirty-one.

(Sighnithe), RISTEÁRD UA MAOLCHATHA.

Minister for Local Government and Public Health.

SCHEDULE.

All shellfish layings in the Administrative Counties of Louth and Meath, lying to the west of a straight line drawn from the point on the sea-shore to the north-east of Dundalk, known as Giles Quay, in the County Health District of Louth, to the point on the sea-shore in the County Health District of Meath, known as Benhead.

NOTICE.—The Public Health Act, 1896, provides by sub-section (3) of Section I. that if any person wilfully neglects or refuses to obey or carry out, or obstructs the execution of any regulation made under any of the enactments mentioned in that Act, he shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding One Hundred Pounds, and in the case of a continuing offence, to a further penalty not exceeding Fifty Pounds for every day during which the offence continues.

The power of making regulations under the Public Health Act, 1896, and the enactments mentioned in that Act, is enlarged by the Public Health (Regulations as to Food) Act, 1907.