PART 4

Enforcement

77 .— (1) Proceedings for an offence under this Act may be brought and prosecuted summarily by the Authority.

(2) A person guilty of an offence under section 38 (3), 39 (1) or 78 (9) is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding €5,000.

78 .— (1) The Authority may appoint such and so many persons as it sees fit to be authorised officers for the purpose of obtaining such information or of carrying out such inspections or any other functions as the Authority may deem necessary for the exercise by the Authority of its functions under this Act.

(2) A person appointed to be an authorised officer by the Authority shall, on his or her appointment, be furnished by the Authority with a certificate of his or her appointment which will indicate the matters in respect of which he or she may act under this section and the period during which the authorisation stands.

(3) An authorised officer, when exercising a power conferred under this section shall, if requested by any person thereby affected, produce the certificate to that person for inspection together with an appropriate form of identification.

(4) In this section and in section 79 “documents, records or other information” includes—

(a) books, accounts, rolls, registers, papers and other documents, whether—

(i) comprised in bound volume, loose-leaf binders or other loose-leaf filing system, loose-leaf ledger sheets, pages, folios or cards, or

(ii) kept on microfilm, magnetic tape or in any non-legible form (by the use of electronics or otherwise) which is capable of being reproduced in a legible form,

(b) every electronic or other automatic means, if any, by which any such thing in non-legible form is so capable of being reproduced, and

(c) documents in manuscript, documents which are typed, printed, stencilled or created by any other mechanical or partly mechanical process in use from time to time and documents which are produced by any photographic or photostatic process.

(5) Subject to this section, an authorised officer may, in respect of the functions of the Authority, serve on a public transport authority or public transport operator a notice in writing, requiring the public transport authority or public transport operator, as the case may be, within such period as may be specified in the notice, not being less than 21 days from the date of the service of the notice, to do either or both of the following, namely—

(a) to deliver to, or to make available for inspection by, the authorised officer such documents, records or other information as are in the possession, power or procurement of the public transport authority or public transport operator and as contain, or may (in the authorised officer’s opinion formed on reasonable grounds) contain, information relevant to the functions of the Authority,

(b) to give to the authorised officer, in writing or otherwise, such information, explanations and particulars as the authorised officer may reasonably require, being information, explanations and particulars that are relevant to the functions of the Authority,

and which are specified in the notice.

(6) Where, in compliance with the requirements of a notice served on a public transport authority or public transport operator under subsection (5), a public transport authority or public transport operator makes available for inspection by an authorised officer, documents, records or other information, the public transport authority or public transport operator shall afford the authorised officer reasonable assistance, including information, explanations and particulars, in relation to the use of all the electronic or other automatic means, if any, by which the documents, records or other information, in so far as they are in a non-legible form, are capable of being reproduced in a legible form, and any data equipment or any associated apparatus or material.

(7) Where, under subsection (5), a public transport authority or public transport operator makes documents, records or other information available for inspection by the authorised officer, the authorised officer may make extracts from or copies of all or any part of the documents, records or other information.

(8) Nothing in this section shall be taken to compel the production by any person of a document which he or she would be exempt from production in proceedings in a court on the ground of legal professional privilege.

(9) A person who—

(a) obstructs or impedes an authorised officer in carrying out his or her functions under this section, or

(b) gives false or misleading information, explanations or particulars to an authorised officer when required under subsection (5),

commits an offence.

79 .— (1) Where a public transport authority or public transport operator fails to comply with the requirements of a notice in accordance with section 78 , an authorised officer may make an application to a judge of the High Court for an order requiring a public transport authority or public transport operator, to do either or both of the following, namely—

(a) to deliver to the authorised officer, or to make available for inspection by the authorised officer, such documents, records or other information as are in the power, possession or procurement of the public transport authority or public transport operator and as contain, or may (in the authorised officer’s opinion formed on reasonable grounds) contain, information relevant to the functions of the Authority,

(b) to give to the authorised officer such information, explanations and particulars as the authorised officer may reasonably require, being information, explanations and particulars that are relevant to the functions of the Authority,

and which are specified in the application.

(2) Where the judge, to whom an application is made under subsection (1), is satisfied that there are reasonable grounds for the application being made, that judge may, subject to such conditions as he or she may consider proper and specify in the order, make an order requiring the public transport authority or public transport operator to whom the application relates—

(a) to deliver to the authorised officer, or to make available for inspection by the authorised officer, such documents, records or other information, and

(b) to give to the authorised officer such information, explanations and particulars,

as may be specified in the order.

80 .— (1) Notwithstanding any enactment, other rules of law, or, in the case of a company any provision contained in the memorandum and articles of association of that company, a person to whom a direction is given by the Authority shall take all such measures as are necessary to comply with such direction without delay.

(2) The Minister may prescribe a class of case in which the Authority shall not give a direction unless it has submitted a draft of the direction to him or her for approval prior to being given.

(3) Compliance by a person with a direction does not give rise to a breach of any enactment, other rules of law or, in the case of a company any provision contained in the memorandum and articles of association of that company. No action or other proceedings lie or are maintainable against a person as a result of such compliance.

(4) Section 27 of the Companies Act 1990 does not apply to the Authority in respect of directions.

(5) Where a person fails or refuses to comply with a direction the Authority may apply to the High Court for an order requiring the person to comply with the direction.

(6) Where the Authority gives a direction to a person, the direction shall be addressed to the person and shall be given to the person in one of the following ways—

(a) by delivering it to the person,

(b) by leaving it at the address at which the person carries on business,

(c) by sending it by post in a pre-paid letter addressed to the person at the address at which the person carries on business,

(d) if an address for the giving of a direction has been furnished by the person, by leaving it at, or sending it by pre-paid post addressed to the person to, that address,

(e) by sending it by means of electronic mail or a facsimile machine, to a device or facility for the reception of electronic mail or facsimiles located at the address at which the person carries on business or, if an address for the giving of a direction has been furnished by the person, that address:

Provided that—

(i) the sender’s—

(I) facility for the reception of electronic mail generates a message confirming a receipt of the electronic mail, or

(II) facsimile machine generates a message confirming successful transmission of the total number of pages of the direction,

and

(ii) the direction or reply is also given in one of the other ways mentioned in any of the preceding paragraphs.

(7) For the purposes of subsection (6), a company registered under the Companies Acts is deemed to be ordinarily resident at its registered offices, and every other body corporate and every unincorporated body is deemed to be ordinarily resident at its principal office or place of business.

(8) A copy of a direction, which has endorsed on it a certificate purporting to be signed by an officer of the Authority (authorised in that behalf by the Authority) stating that the copy is a true copy of the direction may, without proof of signature of that person, be produced in every court and in all legal proceedings and is evidence, unless the contrary is shown, of the direction.

(9) In this section “direction” means a direction given by the Authority under Part 3 .