PART I.

Preliminary and General.

1. —This Act may be cited as the Dairy Produce (Price Stabilisation) Act, 1935.

2. —In this Act—

the expression “the Minister” means the Minister for Agriculture;

the word “creamery” means premises which are either registered in the register of creameries kept in pursuance of the Dairy Produce Act, 1924 (No. 58 of 1924), or the subject of a licence under section 42 of that Act;

the expression “creamery butter” means butter manufactured in a creamery and not subsequently blended with any butter which was not manufactured in a creamery;

the expression “non-creamery butter” means butter which is not creamery butter;

the expression “butter factory” means premises on which butter is, by way of trade, blended, reworked, or subjected to any other treatment, but not so as to cease to be butter;

the expression “the Kerry cattle area” means the area in respect of which it is for the time being declared by regulations made under the Live Stock Breeding Act, 1925 (No. 3 of 1925), that bulls of all breeds other than the Kerry breed are unsuitable for that area;

the word “inspector” means a person authorised in writing (either generally or for a special purpose) by the Minister to exercise the powers conferred on an inspector by this Act;

the word “prescribed” means prescribed by regulations made by the Minister under this Act.

3. —(1) The following and no other substances shall be milk products for the purposes of this Act, that is to say tinned cream, bulk cream, raw cheese, processed cheese, condensed milk, and dried or powdered milk, and also all substances which are for the time being milk products for the purposes aforesaid by virtue of an order made under this section.

(2) The Minister may from time to time by order declare that any substance (other than butter and the substances specifically mentioned in the next preceding sub-section of this section) derived directly or indirectly from milk shall be a milk product for the purposes of this Act and may at any time by order amend or revoke any such order.

(3) Whenever and so long as an order under this section declaring a substance to be a milk product for the purposes of this Act is in force such substance shall be a milk product for those purposes.

4. —(1) The Minister may by order make regulations prescribing any matter or thing referred to in this Act as prescribed or to be prescribed.

(2) Every regulation made by the Minister under this or any other section of this Act shall, as soon as may be after it is made, be laid before each House of the Oireachtas, and if either such House shall, within the next twenty-one days on which such House has sat after such regulation is laid before it, pass a resolution annulling such regulation, such regulation shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under such regulation.

5. —(1) Notwithstanding the expiration on the 31st day of March, 1935, of the Dairy Produce (Price Stabilisation) Act, 1932 (No. 10 of 1932), the following provisions shall have effect and shall be deemed to have come into operation immediately upon and to have had effect as from the said expiration, that is to say:—

(a) every levy which became due and payable before but was unpaid at the expiration of the said Act shall be payable and recoverable under the said Act;

(b) every sum received or recovered by the Minister by virtue of the next preceding paragraph of this section shall, until the butter fund maintained under the said Act has been wound up in pursuance of this Act, be paid into the said butter fund and shall thereafter be paid into the dairy produce (price stabilisation) fund;

(c) every bounty which would have been payable under the said Act (if it had not expired) in respect of goods exported from Saorstát Eireann before such expiration but was not in fact paid before such expiration, shall be payable under and in accordance with the said Act;

(d) every bounty payable by virtue of the next preceding paragraph of this section shall, until the said butter fund has been wound up in pursuance of this Act, be paid out of the said butter fund and thereafter shall be paid out of the dairy produce (price stabilisation) fund;

(e) the said butter fund shall be maintained and managed under and in accordance with the said Act until it is wound up in pursuance of this Act;

(f) every person alleged to have committed an offence under any section of the said Act Before the expiration thereof may, after such expiration, be charged with and prosecuted for such offence and, if found guilty thereof, be punished therefor in accordance with the said Act;

(g) the said Act shall be deemed to continue and to have continued in force so far and for so long as may be necessary to give full force and effect to the provisions of this section.

(2) No action or other legal proceeding whatsoever, whether civil or criminal, shall lie or be maintainable against the Revenue Commissioners or against any officer of customs and excise for or in respect of any act or thing done, whether before or after the passing of this Act, by the Revenue Commissioners or by any officer of customs and excise for the purpose or in the course of preventing the importation into Saorstát Eireann, during the period which began on the 1st day of April, 1935, and ended on the 27th day of April, 1935, of any article the importation of which into Saorstát Eireann during that period without a licence in that behalf would have been unlawful if the Dairy Produce (Price Stabilisation) Act, 1932 , and every order made under that Act which was in force on the 31st day of March, 1935, had continued to be in force during the whole, of the said period.