The Gazette 1946-49

left at a pre-War level in order to keep down the cost of litigation when in fact such expenses very often do make the real difference between expensive litigation and litigation at a reasonable price. In this regard there is probably a contributory cause towards the increase in expenses to witnesses in so far as some sittings of the Circuit Court in the Country are not all that could be desired from the point of view of accessibility to the public, having regard to the unsatisfactory transport position to which I have referred. We note with satisfaction that under the new Courts of Justice Bill, the Judge occupying the new office of President of the Circuit Court will be the person responsible for arranging Sittings of the Court throughout the country, and I think that anywhere it is found that existing Sittings do not satisfy the needs of the public, representation should be made to the Council by Local Bar Associations to have such matters remedied and thereby ensure that in all areas the Circuit Court is, what it was intended to be, a Court within easy reach of the citizen for the purpose of speedy and inexpensive litigation. The attention of the Council in the past half year has also been directed to the question of appoint– ments of solicitors to Local Bodies in a part-time capacity. As you know it has always been the view of the Council that such appointments should, both from the point of view of the general public, the local authority itself and the profession, be made on the basis of taxed costs. Our past President dealt fully with this matter when addressing you last year. A deputation from the Council was recently received by the Minister for Local Govern– ment on this question, and having given the deputa– tion a very sympathetic and helpful hearing, the Minister informed them that the question was really one in the absolute discretion of the Local Authorities concerned and one for their decision in other words it was a matter for absolute decision by each County Manager. Here again the Council have, following the interview with the Minister to which I have referred, appointed a special Com– mittee to deal with the whole matter and they are hopeful that a speedy and satisfactory result will be forthcoming. You will recollect that some years ago the Council had occasion to protest against the new practice, which was then introduced, in the matter of collec– tion of annuities due to the Land Commission, such annuities being collectable by the Sheriff after he had received from the Land Commission a certificate of the amount due and without any intervention by a Court to say whether the amount in fact was due or not. Again this question has arisen in connection with the Agricultural Credit Act, 1947, in which Act it is provided that the 8

Agricultural Credit Corporation has now got similar powers to the Land Commission to recover moneys due to the Corporation by sending a certificate of the amount due, under the seal of the Corporation, to the County Registrar who will then be entitled to levy execution without any Court Order. When this Bill was published the Council immediately appointed a Deputation to wait on the Parliamentary Secretary, Department of Finance, to put forward their reasonable objections to this procedure. Unfortunately their representations were of no avail and the procedure is now in the Act as passed by Dail Eireann. This is, of course, from the point of view of the ordinary citizen, a deplorable attempt to invest a Statutory Corporation with very drastic powers to collect debts due to the Corporation, powers which the ordinary citizen does not, would not, and could not be allowed to enjoy ; indeed one is driven to speculate as to whether eventually all Statutory or quasi-Statutory Bodies will not be given similar power so that they can, in the matter of collection of debts due to them, be outside the jurisdiction of our Courts, because that is what in fact is now the position with the Land Commission and the Agricultural Credit Corporation. It is certainly to be hoped that for the sake of the pre– servation of the rights of the individual citizen no further efforts in this direction will be made by the Legislature. The lengthy labours by your Council in con– nection with the Solicitors Bill are, I believe, now drawing to a close, but there are one or two points of great importance to the profession which have been referred back to them by the Department of Justice and are at present under active consideration. It may very likely happen that a General Meeting of the Society will have to be called to decide finally on at least one of the questions arising. In conclusion, I would like to pay tribute to the excellent work of our Secretary, Mr. Plunkett, whose ability to put before the Council and its Committees data of an. exhaustive and accurate nature makes their task so much easier and more expeditious. At the conclusion of the Chairman's address, Mr. Sean O hUadhaigh addressed the meeting on the subject of the application to the Labour Court by the Workers' Union of Ireland for the establish– ment of a Joint Labour Committee. The Chairman informed Mr. 0 hUadhaigh that this matter was about to be considered by the Council. Mr. Ivan Howe asked that the Council should make representations in the appropriate quarters about the unsystematic manner in which appeals from the Circuit Court to the High Court are listed and stated that cases appear suddenly in the list without warning to the solicitors. He suggested