S.I. No. 205/1957:

OIL POLLUTION OF THE SEA ACT, 1956 (EXCEPTIONS AND EXEMPTIONS) REGULATIONS, 1957.

OIL POLLUTION OF THE SEA ACT, 1956 (EXCEPTIONS AND EXEMPTIONS) REGULATIONS, 1957.

I, SEÁN F. LEMASS, Minister for Industry and Commerce, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by subsection (2) of section 4 and subsection (5) of section 10 of the Oil Pollution of the Sea Act, 1956 (No. 25 of 1956), hereby make the following regulations :--

1. (1) These Regulations may be cited as the Oil Pollution of the Sea Act, 1956 (Exceptions and Exemptions) Regulations, 1957.

(2) These Regulations shall come into operation on the first day of November, 1957.

2. In these Regulations " the Act " means the Oil Pollution of the Sea Act, 1956 (No. 25 of 1956).

3. Every ship registered in the State is hereby excepted from the operation of subsection (3) of section 10 of the act in respect of the discharge from its bilges into a prohibited zone for such ship of a mixture containing lubricating oil which has drained or leaked from machinery spaces but no other oil to which that section applies.

4. Every ship registered in the State (not being a tanker) which uses bunker fuel tanks for the carriage of ballast water and is proceeding to a port in the State or to a port within a prohibited zone for such ship, being in either case a port which has not adequate facilities to receive oil residues is hereby excepted from the operation of subsection (3) of section 10 of the act in respect of a discharge of a mixture containing oil where the mixture consists only of oil from bunker fuel tanks and ballast water, subject to the condition that the discharge is made as far from land as is practicable and not to landward of the seaward limits of the territorial seas of the State.

5. Every vessel of less than eighty tons gross tonnage whether registered or not and of whatever nationality is hereby exempted from the provisions of subsection (1) of section 11 of the act in respect of the discharge from its bilges of a mixture containing lubricating oil which has drained or leaked from machinery spaces but no other oil.

GIVEN under my Official Seal, this 14th day of October, 1957.

SEÁN F. LEMASS,

Minister for Industry and Commerce.

Explanatory Note.

The Regulations permit :--

(a) the discharge by Irish vessels into the prohibited zones of an oily mixture containing lubricating oil only ;

(b) the discharge by Irish dry cargo vessels into the prohibited zones of oily mixtures where no reception facilities are provided at the port of arrival ;

(c) the discharge into Irish territorial waters by vessels of any nationality of less than 80 tons gross of an oily mixture containing lubricating oil only.