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Special Committee Wildlife Bill, 1975 debate -
Tuesday, 2 Nov 1976

SECTION 69.

I move amendment No. 34:

In page 54, subsection (3) (a), to insert "or 73” after “section 72” in line 15.

Amendments Nos. 34, 36 and 37 are related and may be discussed together.

Section 69 provides that it shall be an offence to aid or abet others to commit an offence under the Bill or to impede or instruct authorised persons or the Garda in carrying out their duties under section 72. Obviously, the duties which such authorised persons or the Garda will be entitled to carry out under warrant under section 73 should also be covered, and that is the purpose of amendments Nos. 34 and 36. Amendment No. 37 seeks to replace the existing subsection (5) with a new sub-section, first, to cover the powers of authorised officers and the Garda under section 73 as well as under section 72—secondly, to include products as well as parts of fauna and flora, consequential on the amendment of sections 52 and 53 which have already been agreed and finally to eliminate a certain amount of duplication with the provisions of subsection (3) (b).

Amendment agreed to.

I move amendment No. 35:

In page 54, subsection (3) (b) to insert "without reasonable excuse" before "fails" in line 17.

This is a desirable drafting amendment.

Amendment agreed to.

I move amendment No. 36:

In page 54, subsection (3) (b) to insert "or 73” after “section 73” in line 19.

Amendment agreed to.

I move amendment No. 37:

In page 54, lines 31 to 37, to delete subsection (5) and substitute the following subsection:

"(5) Any person who conceals from a person lawfully exercising a power under section 72 or 73 of this Act any specimen of flora or fauna or any part or product of such specimen or any thing which is a thing mentioned in section 73 (1) of this Act shall be guilty of an offence.”

Amendment agreed to.
Question proposed: "That section 69, as amended, stand part of the Bill."

This is an "omnibus" section which makes it an offence for a person to attempt, aid, abet and so on in the commission of offences under the Bill; to contravene regulations; to refuse to identify himself (when lawfully challenged); to impede authorised officers; to give false information either in connection with some obligation under the Bill or in connection with getting a licence or permission; to fail to produce specimens of fauna or flora or records, documents, and so on; and to contravene conditions attaching to a licence.

The various subsections are self-explanatory and detailed comment on them is scarcely necessary.

It will be observed that under sub-section (1) an "attempt" to commit an offence is, in itself, an offence. Some commentators on the Bill indicated that certain sections were deficient in not providing for inclusion of "attempts": they had of course, missed the global provisions of section 69.

A general question which would apply to offences generally under this legislation—did we have any consultation with the Garda?

We had consultations with the Department of Justice.

Are they happy that they will be able to discharge all these new duties that devolve upon them?

I understand they will have the assistance of authorised officers of the Department throughout the country.

But there will be new duties falling to be discharged by them?

That is right, but many of those duties existed under the Game Preservation Act.

But there has been an extension?

Yes, I agree but we will have authorised officers here which we did not have under previous legislation.

Question put and agreed to.
SECTION 70.

Amendments Nos. 38 and 39 are related and may be discussed together.

I move amendment No. 38:

In page 54, subsection (1), line 51, to delete "Any" and substitute "Summary proceedings for any".

Section 70 deals generally with prosecution of offences arising under the Bill. The amendments are necessary to remove doubt. Under the penalty section, section 74, certain offences may be dealt with either as summary offences or as indictable offences. Summary offences may, under section 70, be prosecuted by the Minister, the Garda or by a person with the consent of the Minister or of an officer of the Minister not below the rank of assistant secretary. The prosecution of indictable offences, however, is a matter for the Director of Public Prosecutions. I consider it necessary to make it absolutely clear that in section 70 we are dealing with summary offences only. The same point arose earlier in connection with amendment No. 19, which was adopted.

Amendment agreed to.

I move amendment No. 39:

In page 54, subsection (2), to insert "summary proceedings for" before "any" in line 53.

Amendment agreed to.
Section 70, as amended, put and agreed to.
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