PART VII.

Miscellaneous.

41. —(1) The Minister for Finance may, on the recommendation of the Minister, advance to the Board, as and when requested by the Board so to do, moneys not exceeding the sum of five million pounds for the electrification of rural areas.

(2) All moneys advanced to the Board under the foregoing subsection of this section shall be issued from and paid out of the Central Fund or the growing produce thereof.

(3) One moiety of the total amount of the moneys advanced to the Board under this section by the Minister for Finance shall be repaid to the Central Fund out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas at such time or times as the Minister for Finance shall direct and the other moiety of the said total amount shall be repaid by the Board.

(4) All moneys advanced to the Board by the Minister for Finance under this section shall be expended by the Board in the extension of the supply of electricity to rural areas.

42. —(1) It shall not be lawful for any person, save with the permission in writing of the Board and in accordance with the conditions as to time, place, and manner stated in such permission, to deposit, discharge, or allow to escape, directly or indirectly, from any land, premises, or place or any vessel in or into any river in which or on the banks of which a generating station is being constructed or operated by the Board or in or into any river or stream tributary to such river or in or into any lake or pond or any canal or other artificial water-way or any artificial water-course connected with such river any chemical or other substance (whether solid or liquid) of a nature calculated to corrode, erode, entangle, stop, break, or otherwise injure such generating station or any part thereof or any works subsidiary thereto or connected therewith.

(2) Every person who deposits, discharges, or allows to escape, directly or indirectly, in or into any river, stream, lake, pond, canal, artificial water-way, or artificial water-course any substance in contravention of the foregoing subsection of this section and the owner of the land, premises, or place or the master and also the owner of the vessel from which such substance is so deposited, discharged, or allowed to escape shall be guilty of an offence under this section 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 fine not exceeding twenty pounds for every day on which the offence is continued.

(3) It shall be a good defence to a charge of having committed an offence under this section to prove that the deposit, discharge, or allowing to escape which is alleged to constitute the offence took place at a point in the river below the generating station of the Board or in or into water communicating with such river only at a point below such station and that the substance alleged to have been deposited, discharged, or allowed to escape could not, having regard to the direction of flow of the water and the other circumstances, have entered or been carried into the said generating station or any part thereof.

(4) The foregoing provisions of this section shall have effect without prejudice and in addition to and not in substitution for the provisions of the Fisheries Acts, 1842 to 1944, and the provisions of the Oil on Navigable Waters Act, 1926 (No. 5 of 1926).

43. —(1) The Board and their officers and servants and other persons authorised by the Board in this behalf shall be entitled to enter on any land for the purpose of doing thereon or on any other land all or any of the things which the Board is authorised by this Act to do or making any inquiry, investigation, or examination preliminary to the doing of any such thing.

(2) Any person who shall obstruct, prevent, or interfere with the exercise by the Board or any officer or servant of the Board or any person authorised by the Board of any power conferred on them or him by the foregoing subsection of this section shall be guilty of an offence under this section and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof to a fine not exceeding ten pounds.

44. —Neither the Board nor any contractor executing any works under this Act shall by virtue of this Act acquire, enter on, remove, or otherwise interfere with any lands, premises, buildings, works, plant, materials, or other property of the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs or erect any works or do any other matter or thing which, in the opinion of the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, would obstruct, delay, hinder, or otherwise injuriously affect the due execution of the public services of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs.

45. —The report required by section 32 of the Electricity (Supply) Act, 1927 (No. 27 of 1927), to be made by the Board in each year shall extend to and include the proceedings of the Board under this Act during the year to which such report relates, and the obligation to furnish statistics and returns imposed on the Board by the said section 32 shall extend to and include statistics and returns in relation to the proceedings of the Board under this Act.

46. —(1) In this section the expression “the Act of 1927” means the Electricity (Supply) Act, 1927 (No. 27 of 1927).

(2) The expression “electric line” wherever it occurs in the Act of 1927 shall be construed and have effect and be deemed always to have had effect as meaning a wire or wires, conductor, or other means used for the purpose of conveying, transmitting, or distributing electricity and as including any transforming or other apparatus connected with any such wire or wires, conductor, or other means, and as including also any casing, coating, covering, tube, pipe, or insulator surrounding any such wire or wires, conductor, or other means or any such apparatus, and as including also any post, pole, stay, erection, or structure supporting any one or more of the things hereinbefore mentioned.

(3) The word “lines” wherever it occurs in subsection (1) of section 51 of the Act of 1927 shall be construed and have effect and be deemed always to have had effect as meaning electric lines as defined in the next preceding subsection of this section.

(4) The following provisions shall apply and have effect in relation to the notice required by subsection (3) of section 53 of the Act of 1927 to be served on the owner and the occupier of land or a building, that is to say:—

(a) any such notice may, in lieu of being served personally on such owner or such occupier (as the case may be), be served on him by sending such notice by prepaid post in an envelope addressed to such owner or occupier (as the case may be) at his usual or last known address; and when so sent such notice shall be deemed to be served at the time when such envelope would be delivered in the ordinary course of post;

(b) where for any reason the envelope mentioned in the next preceding paragraph of this subsection cannot be addressed in the manner provided by that paragraph, such envelope may be addressed to the person for whom it is intended in either or both of the following ways, that is to say:—

(i) by the description “the owner” or “the occupier” (as the case may be) without stating his name,

(ii) at the land or building to which the notice contained in such envelope relates.

(5) The period of fourteen days mentioned in subsections (4) and (5) of section 53 of the Act of 1927 is hereby reduced to seven days, and for that purpose the words “seven days” are hereby substituted for the words “fourteen days” wherever the latter words occur in either of the said subsections.

47. —So much of subsection (1) of section 3 of the Electricity (Supply) (Amendment) Act, 1931 (No. 32 of 1931), as requires that sums advanced under that section shall be advanced only on the certificate of the Minister for Industry and Commerce is hereby repealed and in lieu thereof it is hereby enacted that sums advanced under the said section shall be advanced on the recommendation of the Minister for Industry and Commerce.

48. —Notwithstanding anything contained in any enactment, no person shall, without the previous consent of the Minister, acquire compulsorily any land or premises held by the Board or acquire, terminate, restrict or otherwise interfere with compulsorily any easement, wayleave or other right whatsoever over or in respect of any such land.