PART X.

Administration.

93. —(1) The Minister may authorise any of his officers to act as inspectors for the purposes of this Act.

(2) Notice of an authorisation under this section shall be published in the Iris Oifigiúil.

(3) Such annual report of the proceedings of the inspectors as the Minister directs shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas.

94. —(1) An inspector shall, for the purposes of the execution of this Act, have power to do all or any of the following things, that is to say—

(a) to enter, inspect and examine at all reasonable times, by day and night, a factory, and every part thereof, when he has reasonable cause to believe that any person is employed therein, and to enter by day any place which he has reasonable cause to believe to be a factory and any part of any building of which a factory forms part and in which he has reasonable cause to believe that explosive or highly inflammable materials are stored or used;

(b) to take with him a member of the Garda Síochána if he has reasonable cause to apprehend any serious obstruction in the execution of his duty;

(c) to require the production of the registers, certificates, notices and documents, kept in pursuance of this Act, and to inspect, examine and copy any of them;

(d) to make such examination and inquiry as may be necessary to ascertain whether the provisions of this Act and the enactments for the time being in force relating to public health are complied with, so far as respects a factory and any persons employed in a factory;

(e) to require any person whom he finds in a factory to give such information as it is in his power to give as to who is the occupier of the factory;

(f) to examine, either alone or in the presence of any other person, as he thinks fit, with respect to matters under this Act, every person whom he finds in a factory, or whom he has reasonable cause to believe to be or to have been within the preceding two months employed in a factory, and to require every such person to be so examined and to sign a declaration of the truth of the matters respecting which he is so examined;

(g) to exercise such other powers as may be necessary for carrying this Act into effect.

(2) No one shall be required by virtue of paragraph (f) of subsection (1) of this section to answer any question or to give any evidence tending to criminate himself.

(3) The occupier of every factory, his agents and servants, shall furnish the means required by an inspector as necessary for any entry, inspection, examination, inquiry, taking of samples or other power under this Act, in relation to that factory.

(4) If any person wilfully delays an inspector in the exercise of any power under this section, or fails to comply with the requisition of an inspector in pursuance of this section, or to produce any register, certificate, notice or document which he is required by or in pursuance of this Act to produce, or wilfully withholds any information as to who is the occupier of any factory, or conceals or prevents, or attempts to conceal or prevent, a person from appearing before or being examined by an inspector, that person shall be deemed to obstruct an inspector in the execution of his duties under this Act.

(5) Where an inspector is obstructed in the execution of his powers or duties under this Act—

(a) if the obstruction is in a factory, the occupier, and, if the person obstructing the inspector is not the occupier, also the person obstructing the inspector, shall be guilty of an offence under this section,

(b) in any other case, the person obstructing the inspector shall be guilty of an offence under this section.

95. —Every inspector shall be furnished with a certificate of his authorisation to act as an inspector, and when visiting a factory or place to which any of the provisions of this Act apply, shall, if so required, produce the said certificate to the occupier or any other person holding a responsible position of management at the factory or place.

96. —(1) The Minister may appoint registered medical practitioners to be certifying doctors for any of the purposes of this Act, and may revoke any such appointment.

(2) A registered medical practitioner who is the occupier of a factory, or is directly or indirectly interested therein, or in any process or business carried on therein, or in a patent connected therewith, shall not act as certifying doctor for the factory.

(3) The certifying doctor for a factory shall have power at all reasonable times to inspect the general register of the factory.

(4) The Minister may make rules regulating the duties of certifying doctors.

(5) A certifying doctor shall, if so directed by the Minister, make such special inquiry and examination of employed persons as may be directed.

(6) Every certifying doctor shall in each year make at the time appointed by the Minister a report in the prescribed form to the Minister as to examinations made and other duties performed by him in pursuance of this Act.

(7) If and so long as there is no certifying doctor for a factory, a district medical officer for the dispensary district in which the factory is situate shall act as the certifying doctor for the factory.

(8) References in the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1934 (No. 9 of 1934), to a certifying surgeon shall be construed as references to a certifying doctor appointed under this section, and references to the certifying surgeon for the district in which the workman is employed, shall in a case where a workman is employed in a district for which no certifying doctor is appointed, be construed as references to the medical practitioner (if any) appointed by the Minister to have the powers and duties of a certifying surgeon under Part X of the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1934 , in such a case or, if no such appointment has been made, to the medical officer for the dispensary district in which the workman is employed.

(9) The Civil Service Regulation Acts, 1924 and 1926, shall not apply to the office of certifying doctor.

97. —The fees to be paid to certifying doctors for carrying out their duties under this Act shall, so far as they relate to any examination or certificate with respect to the fitness of a young person for employment in a factory or to any examination or medical supervision of persons employed in a factory carried out in pursuance of regulations or an order under this Act, be paid by the occupier of that factory, and in any other case shall be paid by the Minister, and the fees shall be of such amounts as may be prescribed, but without prejudice to any agreement between a certifying doctor and the occupier of a factory for the payment by the occupier of fees of greater amounts than those prescribed.

98. —(1) The expenses of a sanitary authority under this Act shall be raised and defrayed in like manner as their expenses under the Local Government (Sanitary Services) Acts, 1878 to 1948, are raised and defrayed.

(2) A medical officer of health, a health inspector or an officer of a sanitary authority appointed for the purpose of inspection of factories shall give written notice to the Minister of any factory coming to his knowledge in which no abstract of this Act is affixed in accordance with this Act.

(3) For the purpose of their duties under this Act, a sanitary authority and their officers and medical officers of health and health inspectors shall, without prejudice to their other powers, have all such powers (including, in particular, powers of entry and inspection) as an inspector has, and accordingly in relation to their said duties the provisions of this Act as to furnishing means required by an inspector, and delaying or obstructing an inspector, shall be construed as including references to such officers.

(4) No power of entry or inspection shall be exercised by virtue of subsection (3) of this section except by officers of a sanitary authority, medical officers of health and health inspectors authorised by the sanitary authority in writing in that behalf, either generally or specially, and any such officer shall, if so required, produce his authority to the occupier or any other person holding a responsible position of management at the factory.

(5) If any person who, in pursuance of powers conferred by subsection (3) of this section, is admitted into a factory or place discloses to any person any information obtained by him in the factory or place with regard to any manufacturing process or trade secret, he shall, unless such disclosure was made in the performance of his duty, be guilty of an offence under this section and shall be liable on summary conviction thereof to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds or, at the discretion of the court, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to both such fine and such imprisonment.

99. —(1) Every regulation made by the Minister under this Act shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the resolution is passed by either House, within the next twenty-one days on which that House has sat after the regulation has been laid before it, the regulation shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

(2) The provisions contained in the Third Schedule to this Act shall apply to regulations which are referred to in this Act as special regulations.

(3) Any regulations or order made by the Minister under this Act may be made for a limited period or without limit of period and may be made subject to such conditions as he thinks fit, and may contain such supplemental and consequential provisions as he considers necessary for giving full effect to the regulations or order and may, except as otherwise expressly provided in this Act, be varied or revoked by subsequent regulations or by a subsequent order made in like manner as the original regulations or order.

(4) Any certificate issued by the Minister under this Act may be issued for a limited period or without limit of period and may be varied or revoked by the Minister.