European Union (Liability of Carriers of Passengers by Sea) Regulations 2012.
Statutory Instruments
Source: Statutory Instruments

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paragraphs: (1) These Regulations may be cited as the European Union (Liability of Carriers of Passengers by Sea) Regulations 2012.
(2) Regulations 1 to 9 come into operation on 31 December 2012.
(3) Regulation 10 shall come into operation when the Minister makes an order under paragraph (4).
(4) The Minister may make an order bringing Regulation 10 into operation.
(5) Where the Minister makes an order under paragraph (4) he or she shall lay a copy of the order before the Houses of the Oireachtas.
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paragraphs: (1) In this Part—
(2) A word or expression that is used in this Part and is also used in the EU Regulation has, unless the contrary intention appears, the same meaning in this Part as it has in the EU Regulation.
(3) In this Part references to the Athens Convention, or any provision thereof, are references to provisions of that Convention as applied by the EU Regulation.
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paragraphs: (1) Subject to paragraph (2), this Part applies to the carriage of passengers by sea on ships to which Article 2 applies.
(2) This Part shall apply to the carriage of passengers by sea on Class B ships within the State from 31 December 2018.
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paragraphs: For the purposes of the EU Regulation the following shall apply:
(a) The reference to the law of the court in the Athens Convention and Article 6 of the Protocol of 2002 shall be construed as references to the Civil Liability Act 1961 .
(b) The Minister may by order provide that, in relation to a carrier whose principal place of business is in the State, Article 7(1) of the Athens Convention shall have effect with the substitution for the monetary limit specified in that paragraph of a higher monetary limit specified in the order (which shall not be lower than the monetary limit specified in Article 7(1) of that Convention).
(c) A court before which proceedings are brought in pursuance of Article 17 of the Athens Convention to enforce a liability which is limited by virtue of Article 12 of that Convention may at any stage of the proceedings make such order as appears to the court to be just and equitable having regard to the provisions of the said Article 12 and to any other proceedings which have been or are likely to be begun in the State or elsewhere to enforce the liability in whole or in part; without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing such a court shall, where the liability is or may be partly enforceable in other proceedings in the State or elsewhere, have jurisdiction to award an amount less than the court would have awarded if the limitation applied solely to the proceedings before the court or to make any part of its award conditional on the results of any other proceedings.
(d)(i) An action for damages under the Athens Convention shall be deemed for the purposes of every enactment and rule of law to be an action founded on tort.
(ii) Subparagraph (i) shall not have the effect of applying to an action referred to in subparagraph (i) a provision of an enactment or a rule of law that is inconsistent with the Athens Convention.
(e) Section 38 of the Merchant Shipping (Liability of Shipowners and Others) Act 1996 (No. 35 of 1996) shall not relieve a person of any liability—
(i) for loss or damage resulting from any such personal act or omission of the person as is mentioned in Article 4 of the Athens Convention, or
(ii) that is imposed on the person by that Convention.
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paragraphs: A carrier or performing carrier which fails to provide a passenger with the information as required in Article 7 of the EU Regulation shall be guilty of an offence.
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paragraphs: An offence under this Part may be prosecuted summarily by the Minister.
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paragraphs: A person guilty of an offence under this Part shall be liable on summary conviction to a class A fine.
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paragraphs: Where an offence under this Part is committed by a body corporate and is proved to have been so committed with the consent, connivance or approval of, or to have been attributable to the neglect on the part of, any person being a director, manager, secretary or other officer of the body corporate, or a person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, that person as well as the body corporate commits an offence and is liable to be proceeded against and punished as if he or she were guilty of the first-mentioned offence.
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paragraphs: Part III of the Merchant Shipping (Liability of Shipowners and Others) Act 1996 is amended—
(a) in section 18, by inserting before the definition of “the 1974 Convention” the following definition:
“ ‘the EU Regulation’ means Regulation (EC) No 392/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 20091 on the liability of carriers of passengers by sea in the event of accidents;”, and
(b) by inserting after section 29 the following:
“Part III not to apply to certain claims.
29A.—Part III shall not apply to any claim to which the EU Regulation applies.”.
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paragraphs: The Merchant Shipping (Liability of Shipowners and Others) Act 1996 is amended—
(a) by substituting for section 18 the following:
“18.—(1) In this Part, unless the context otherwise requires—
‘the Athens Convention’ means the Convention relating to the Carriage of Passengers and their Luggage by Sea 2002, originally done at Athens on 13 December 1974, as amended by the 2002 Protocol, and includes the IMO Reservation and Guidelines;
‘the EU Regulation’ means Regulation (EC) No 392/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009;
‘the IMO Reservation and Guidelines’ means the IMO Reservation and Guidelines for implementation of the Athens Convention, adopted by the Legal Committee of the International Maritime Organization on 19 October 2006, an extract of which is set out in Annex II of the EU Regulation;