1. - In this Act-

the word "Minister" means a member of the Government whether he is or is not a Minister having charge of a Department of State;

the word "instrument" means an order, regulation, rule, bye-law, warrant, licence, certificate, or other like document.

  Definitions

2.-(1) The Government may, whenever and so often as they see fit, make by order (in this Act referred to as an emergency order) such provisions as are, in the opinion of the Government, necesary or expedient for securing the public safety or the preservation of the state, or for the maintenance of public order, or for the provision and control or supplies and services essential to the life of the community.

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing sub-section of this section, the governmet may do by an emergency order all or any of the following thing, that is to say :-

(a) authorise and provide for the regulation and control by or on behalf of the state of all or any supplies or services essential to the life of the commmunity and, where the Government so thinks proper, the maintenance and provision of such essential supplies by or on behalf of the state and the provision and operation of such essential services by or on behalf of the state;

(b) authorise a minister to buy and sell goods of a particular kind or class or to engage in any other form of trade in relation to goods of a particular kind or class, and make such provisions as may be requisite in relation to such buying, selling, or trading;

(c) authorise and provide for the control, regulation, restriction, or prohibition of the import or of the export of particular kinds or classes of goods;

(d) authorise and provide for the acquisition (either by agreement or compulsorily) by or on behalf of the state of any currency (other than Irish currency), bills, credits and balances, payable otherwise than in Irish currency, gold coin and bullion, and securities, and for the ascertainment of the price to be paid therefore in the case of compulsory acqusition, and for the control and restriction of dealings in any other currency, bills, credits and balances payable otherwise than in Irish currency, gold coin and bullion, and securities, and for the control and restriction of issues of capital;

(e) authorise and provide for the regulation and control of navigation by sea or air and the movements of ships and other vessels and aircraft, and for the making and enforcement of provisions for securing, or contributing to the safety of ships and other vessels and aircraft;

(f) authorise and provide for the regulation and restriction of the transfer, mortgaging and registration of ships and other vessels and aircraft;

(g) authorise and provide for the acquisition, taking possession, control or user (either by agreement or compulsorily) by or on behalf of the state of any land or other property whatsoever;

(h) authorise and provide for the censorship, restriction, control, or partial or complete suspension of communication by means of all or one or more of the services maintained or controlled by the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs or by any other means, whether public or private, specified or indicated in such emergency order;

(i) make provision for preserving and safeguarding the secrecy of official documents and information and for controlling the publication of official information and for prohibiting the publication or spreading of subversive statements and propaganda, and authorise and provide for the control and censorship of newspapaers and periodicals;

(j) authorise and provide for the prohibition, restriction, or control of the entry or departure of persons into or out of the state and the movements of persons within the State;

(k) authorise for the detention of persons (other than natural born Irish citizens) where such detention is, in the opinion of a Minister, nessesary or expedient in the interests of the public safety or the preservation of the State;

(l) autorise the arrest without warrant of persons (other than natural-born Irish citizens) whose detention has been ordered or directed by a Minister;

(m) authorise the arrest without warrant of persons who are charged with or are suspected of having commited or being about to commit or being or having been concerned in the commision of an offence under any section of this act or any other specified crime or offence;

(n) authorise and provide for the entering into and searching fo any lands, premises, vehicles, ships and other vessels, or aircraft in circumstances and by persons specified or indicated in such emergency order;

(o) authorise and provide for the searching of persons in circumstances and by persons specified or indicated in such emergency order;

(p) suspend the operation of or amend or apply (with or without modification) any enactment (other than this Act) for the time being in force or any snstrument made under any such enactment.

(3) Whenever the governemt makes an emergency order, the Government may, in lieu of making provision for or doing any particular thing in or by way such emergency order, authorise or empower by such emergency order a Minister or any ohter person specified or indicated in such emergency order to make the said provision or to do the said thing and for that purpose (subject to such (if any) conditions and consents as may be specified in such emergency order) to make, grant, or issue such instruments and give such directions as shall appear to such Minister or person to be nessesaryor proper for the said purpose.

(4) An emergency order may contain all such incidental or ancillary provisons as shall appear to the Government to be nessesary or expedient for giving full effect to any provision inserted in such emergency order under the powers conferredon the Government by the foregoing provisions of this section.

(5) Nothing in this section shall authorise the imposition of taxation or the imposition of any form compulsory military service or any form of industrial conscription, or the making or provision for the trial by courts-martial of persons not being persons subject to military law.

(6) Nothing in this section shall be construed as authorising the declaration of war or the participation by the State in any war without the assent of Dail Eireannn.

   Emergency orders.

3.--(1) The Government may by order, whenever they so think fit, revoke an emergency order.

(2) The Goverment may by order, whenever and so often as they so think fit, amend (whether by addition, deletion, or variation) in such manner as they think fit an emergency order and, in particular, may do by such amending order anything which they could lawfully have done by such emergency order and may also, by any such amending order, amend an order previously made under this sub-section.

(3) The Goverment may by order, whenever they so think fit, revoke any order made by them under the next receeding sub-section of this section.

(4) References in the subsequent provisions of this Act to an eergency order shal be construed as including references to an order made under this section.

  Revocation and  amendment of  emergency orders.

4.--(1) Every power conferred by an emergency order to make, grant, or issue an instrument shall be construed and have effect as including a power, exercisable in the like manner and subject to the like conditions and consents (if any), to revoke or amend any instrument made, granted, or issued under such power and (where requisite) to make, grant, or issue another instrument in lieu of the instrument so revoked.

(2) Every power conferred by an emergency power to give a direction shall be construed and have effect as including a power, excercisable in the like manner and subject to the like conditions and consents (if any), to revoke or amend any direction given under such power and (where requisite) to give another direction in lieu of the direction so revoked.

Revocation and amendment of instruments and directions under emergency orders.

5.--(1)

Offences, prosecutions and punishments.

6.--(1)

Delegation of statutory powers and duties.

7.--(1)

Hearing of proceedings in camera.

8.--(1) There shall be charged, levied, and paid on the grant, renewal, or issue of any licence, permit, certificate, or like document granted, renewed, or issued under or for the purpose of an emergency order or under or for the purpose of an instrument made, granted, or issued or a direction given under a power conferred by an emergency order such (if any) fee as the Minister for Finance shall from time to time direct.

(2) All fees charged and levied by virtue of this section shall be collected and taken in such manner as the Minister for Finance shall from time to time direct and shall be paid into or disposed of for the benefit of the Exchequer in accordance with the directions of the said Minister.

(3)The Public Office Fees Act, 1879, shal not apply in respect of any fees charged and levied by virtue of this section.

Fees on licences, etc.

9.—Every emergency order shall be laid before each house of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made, and if a resolution annulling such order is passed by either such House within the next subsequent twenty-one days on which such House has sat after such such order is laid before it, such order shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under such order.

Laying of emergency orders before the Oireachtas.

10.—Every emergency order and every instrument made, granted, or issued or direction given under an emergency order shall have the force of law, and sahll have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistant therewidth contained in any enactment other than this Act or in any instrument having effect by virtue of any enactment other than this Act.

Operation of emergency orders and instruments and directions thereunder.

11.—The powers conferred on the Government by this Act shall be in addition to, and not in derogation of, any other powers exercisable by the Government or by a Minister.

Saving for other powers.

12.—The expenses incurred by the Government or by any Minister in the Administration of this Act shall, to such extent as may be sanctioned by the Minister of Finance, be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.

Expenses.

13.--(1) This Act may be cited as the Emergency Powers Act, 1939.

(2) Unless previously terminated under sub-section (3) of this section this Act shall continue in force until the expiration of twelve months from the date of the passing thereof and, unless the Oireachtas otherwise determines, shall then expire.

(3) The Government may by order declare that this Act shall expire on a specified date, being earlier than the expiration of twelve months from the date of the passing thereof, and in that case this Act shall expire accordingly.