Vol. 555 No. 5
123 Mr. Ring asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if a person needs a casual trading licence to sell food, cooked at the point of sale, outside a casual trading designated area, considering that the Casual Trading Act, 1995, does not give a specific exemption for food, cooked at the point of sale, as mentioned in the Casual Trading Act, 1980. [18865/02]
The Casual Trading Act, 1995, regulates casual trading, which is described as trading in a place to which the public has access as of right, including a public road. Under section 3(1) of the Act, a person shall not engage in casual trading unless he or she holds a casual trading licence or is the servant or agent of a person holding such a licence. It is an offence to contravene that requirement. Under section 6, local authorities are required to make by-laws in relation to the control of casual trading in their functional area.
The Act makes no express provision for the exemption of food, cooked or otherwise, from the scope of the Act. Provision was made for the granting of exemptions generally by myself or by local authorities. My policy on exemptions is to leave the main responsibility to local authorities, which are best placed to consider such matters.
As regards the permitted locations for casual trading, this depends on whether the relevant local authority has designated a casual trading area. If it has, casual trading is confined to that area and may not take place outside that area, except in the case of trading covered by event licenses, e.g., concerts, sporting events and festivals.
