Merchant shipping act, 1966

• Act Number: 20
• Enactment Date: 12 July 1966

Number 20 of 1966.
MERCHANT SHIPPING ACT, 1966
ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS
Section 1. Interpretation. 2. Application of Act of 1952 to the Convention. 3. Cargo ship construction and survey rules. 4. Cargo ship safety construction certificates and exemption certificates. 5. Notice of alterations and additional surveys. 6. Prohibition on proceeding to sea without appropriate certificates. 7. Exemption of ships holding appropriate certificates. 8. Penalty for non-compliance with rules and power to detain. 9. Damage control plans and stability information for passenger steamers. 10. Extension of power to make rules for life-saving appliances. 11. Requirements for portable radio apparatus carried in survival craft. 12. Radio installations. 13. Renewal of radio certificates for small cargo ships. 14. Issue of exemption certificates where Convention country issues corresponding qualified certificates. 15. Information about ships' stability. 16. Modification of section 46 of Act of 1952. 17. Extension of duty to report dangers to navigation. 18. Prohibition on proceeding to sea on international voyage without approved signalling lamp. 19. Amendment of section 271 of Merchant Shipping Act, 1894. 20. Transitional provisions and repeals. 21. Short title, collective citation and commencement.
Acts Referred to Merchant Shipping (Safety Convention) Act, 1952 1952, No. 29 Merchant Shipping Act, 1894 1894, c. 60 Merchant Shipping (Distress and Urgency Signals and Danger Warning) Rules, 1936 S.R. & O., No. 298 of 1936
Number 20 of 1966.
MERCHANT SHIPPING ACT, 1966
AN ACT TO ENABLE EFFECT TO BE GIVEN TO AN INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION FOR THE SAFETY OF LIFE AT SEA SIGNED IN LONDON ON THE 17th DAY OF JUNE, 1960, TO AMEND SECTION 271 OF THE MERCHANT SHIPPING ACT, 1894 , AND FOR PURPOSES CONNECTED THEREWITH. [12th July, 1966.]
BE IT ENACTED BY THE OIREACHTAS AS FOLLOWS:—
	Interpretation.	1.—(1) In this Act—
	“the Act of 1952” means the Merchant Shipping (Safety Convention) Act, 1952 ;
	“cargo ship construction and survey rules” has the meaning specified in section 3 (1);
	“cargo ship safety construction certificate” has the meaning specified in section 4 (1);
	“the Convention” means the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea signed in London on behalf of the Government on the 17th day of June, 1960;
	“the Minister” means the Minister for Transport and Power;
	“the Principal Act” means the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894 ;
	“qualified cargo ship safety construction certificate” has the meaning specified in section 4 (2) “the Safety Convention” means the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea signed in London on behalf of the Government on the 10th day of June, 1948.
	(2) In the Act of 1952 “the Merchant Shipping Acts” shall mean the Merchant Shipping Acts, 1894 to 1962, and this Act; and this Act shall be construed as one with those Acts.
	Application of Act of 1952 to the Convention.	2.—For the purpose of enabling effect to be given to the Convention (which replaces the Safety Convention), the Act of 1952 shall have effect as if—
	(a) for references therein to the Safety Convention there were substituted references to the Convention; and
	(b) references therein to that Act, except in sections 1 and 2, included references to this Act.
	New requirements for cargo ships
	Cargo ship construction and survey rules.	3.—(1) The Minister may make rules (in this Act referred to as cargo ship construction and survey rules) prescribing requirements for the hull, equipment and machinery of ships to which this section applies and requiring any such ships which are registered in the State to be surveyed to such extent, in such manner and at such intervals as may be prescribed by the rules.
	(2) The said rules shall include such requirements as appear to the Minister to implement the provisions of the Convention relating to the hull, equipment and machinery of such ships, except so far as those provisions are implemented by any other rules or regulations made under the Merchant Shipping Acts.
	(3) This section applies to—
	(a) sea-going ships of not less than five hundred tons gross tonnage; and
	(b) sea-going ships of not less than such lower tonnage and of such description as the Minister may by order specify;
	other than passenger steamers, troopships, pleasure yachts, fishing vessels and ships not propelled by mechanical means; except that it applies to ships not registered in the State only while they are within a port in the State and are not exempted from the cargo ship construction and survey rules under the following provisions of this Act.
	(4) The matters with regard to which fees may be prescribed by order under section 5 of the Act of 1952 shall include surveys required by the cargo ship construction and survey rules, and the provisions applied by section 27 (2) of that Act (which relate to the delivery of declarations of survey and appeals to the court of survey) shall apply to such surveys whether or not they are made for the purpose of the issue of any certificate.
	(5) In relation to surveys required by the cargo ship construction and survey rules which are carried out otherwise than by a surveyor of ships appointed under the Merchant Shipping Acts—
	(a) so much of section 6 of the Act of 1952 as requires fees to be paid into or disposed of for the benefit of the Exchequer shall not apply; and
	(b) the provisions applied by section 27 (2) of the Act of 1952 shall apply with such modifications as may be prescribed by the cargo ship construction and survey rules; and
	(c) the definition of “declaration of survey” in section 3 of the Act of 1952 shall not apply.
	(6) An order under subsection (3) (b) of this section may be varied or revoked by a subsequent order.
	Cargo ship safety construction certificates and exemption certificates.	4.—(1) If the Minister or such person as he may authorise for the purpose is satisfied, on receipt of declarations of survey in respect of a ship to which section 3 of this Act applies and which is registered in the State, that the ship complies with the cargo ship construction and survey rules applicable to the ship and such voyages as she is to be engaged on, he shall, on the application of the owner, issue in respect of the ship—
	(a) if the ship is of not less than five hundred tons gross tonnage and is to be engaged on international voyages, a certificate in the form prescribed by the Convention;
	(b) in any other case, a certificate showing that she complies with the said rules;
	and any such certificate is in this Act referred to as a cargo ship safety construction certificate.
	(2) If the Minister, on receipt of declarations of survey in respect of such a ship, is satisfied that the ship is exempt, by virtue of any exercise by him of a power conferred on him by section 45 of the Act of 1952 or the cargo ship construction and survey rules, from any of the requirements of those rules applicable to the ship and to such voyages as she is to be engaged on, and that she complies with the rest of those requirements, he shall, on the application of the owner, issue in respect of the ship—
	(a) if she is of not less than five hundred tons gross tonnage and is to be engaged on international voyages—
	(i) an exemption certificate stating which of the requirements of the Convention, being requirements implemented by the rules and applicable as aforesaid, the ship is exempt from and that the exemption is conditional on the ship's plying on the voyages and complying with the other conditions (if any) specified in the certificate; and
	(ii) a certificate showing that the ship complies with the rest of those requirements;
	(b) in any other case, a certificate showing that the ship complies with such of the requirements of the cargo ship construction and survey rules applicable to the ship and to the voyages she is to be engaged on as she is not exempt from;
	and any certificate issued under paragraph (a) (ii) or paragraph (b) of this subsection is in this Act referred to as a qualified cargo ship safety construction certificate.
	(3) A certificate issued under this section, other than an exemption certificate, shall remain in force for five years or such shorter period as may be specified in it, but without prejudice to the Minister's power to cancel it; and an exemption certificate issued under this section shall remain in force for the same period as the corresponding qualified certificate.
	(4) The Minister may by order extend the period for which a certificate under this section may be issued to a period not exceeding six years.
	(5) Without prejudice to the power of extension conferred by section 27 (5) of the Act of 1952, where a certificate under this section is in force in respect of a ship and the certificate was issued for a shorter period than is allowed under the foregoing provisions of this section, the Minister or any person authorised by him for the purpose may, if satisfied on receipt of declarations of survey in respect of the ship that it is proper to do so, grant an extension of the certificate for a period not exceeding one year, and not exceeding, together with the period for which it was issued and any period by which it has been previously extended under this subsection, the longest period for which it could have been issued under this section.
	(6) In relation to a certificate issued or extended under this section by a person authorised by the Minister—
	(a) the provisions applied by section 27 (8) of the Act of 1952 (which relate to the transmission...