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4 1958

PRICES ACT, 1958

PART I.

Preliminary And General.

Short Title And Commencement.

1. — (1) This Act may be cited as the Prices Act, 1958.

(2) This Act shall come into operation on such day as the Minister appoints by order.

Definitions generally.

2. —In this Act—

the Act of 1953” means the Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1953 (No. 14 of 1953);

Advisory Committee” means a Prices Advisory Committee constituted under section 9 of this Act;

authorised officer” means a person appointed to be an authorised officer under section 23 of this Act;

the Minister” means the Minister for Industry and Commerce;

restrictive practices” has the same meaning as in the Act of 1953.

Construction of references to selling and rendering a service.

3. —In this Act—

a reference to selling shall be construed as including a reference to agreeing or offering to sell or inviting an offer to buy;

a reference to rendering a service shall be construed as including a reference to agreeing or offering to render a service or inviting an offer for its rendering;

a reference to an offer.to sell shall be construed as including a reference to a notification by a person of the price proposed by him for the sale of a commodity made by the publication of a price list or by exposing the commodity for sale in association with a mark indicating price or by the furnishing of a condition or otherwise;

a reference to an offer to render a service shall be construed as indicating a reference to a notification by a person of the charge proposed by him for its rendering made by the publication of a list of charges or by the furnishing of a condition or otherwise.

Hire-purchase agreements.

4. —For the purposes of this Act, a hire-purchase agreement, within the meaning of section 1 of the Hire-Purchase Act, 1946 (No. 16 of 1946), shall be deemed to be an agreement to sell and the sale shall be deemed to take place on the date on which the agreement is entered into.

Restriction of Act.

5. —This Act does not apply to any of the following—

(a) activities carried on by or on behalf of a Minister of State, a local authority, within the meaning of the Local Government Act, 1941 (No. 23 of 1941), a vocational education committee, a railway, road, air or water transport undertaking or a harbour authority;

(b) prices for commodities (other than bread or milk), the prices for which are or may be controlled, regulated, or specified either under any other enactment or any instrument made thereunder or in discharge of any statutory duty;

(c) charges for services, the charges for which are or may be controlled, regulated, or specified either under any other enactment or any instrument made thereunder or in discharge of any statutory duty;

(d) prices paid to producers, or received by dealers at factories, for primary agricultural products (including eggs, poultry, milk and milk products) and horticultural products;

(e) charges for artificial insemination;

(f) ex-boat prices of fish and all transactions of An Bord Iascaigh Mhara;

(g) charges for services wholly of a professional character;

(h) charges for services rendered in connection with banking or insurance;

(i) prices for commodities sold for export or exported for sale;

(j) charges for services rendered outside the State.

Laying of orders before Houses of the Oireachtas.

6. —Every order made by the Government or 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 order is passed by either House, within the next twenty-one days on which that House has sat after the order has been laid before it, the order shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

Expenses.

7. —The expenses incurred in the administration of this Act shall, to such extent as may be sanctioned by the Minister for Finance, be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.

Repeals.

8. —The enactments mentioned in the First Schedule to this Act are hereby repealed to the extent mentioned in the third column of the said Schedule.