The Gazette 1967/71

occupies so much of the time of the members of the Council, but unless one has been a member one cannot really appreciate the diligence and selflessness shown for instance by the members of the Registrar's and Compensation Fund Com mittees who deal so carefully with complaints and claims or by members of the Court of Examiners who interview intending apprentices and deal with the other many problems in relation to exam inations, lectures and other educational matters. The heaviest burden of the Committee work falls on the Dublin members but I have the greatest admiration for the country members of the Coun cil who travel long distances and frequently have to be away from their offices for three days at a time when they come up to attend the Council meeting and its attendant committee meetings. 1 want to take this opportunity of expressing to them all my sincere thanks for the willing help and co-operation I have received during the year. In particular for my two Vice-Presidents, Mr. Brendan McGrath and Mr. T. V. O'Connor. I am grateful also to my colleagues in various parts of Ireland who have given me hospitality during the year at Bar Association dinners and received me so kindly at other functions and meetings. I do not know how to express my admiration for Eric Plunkett and for his staff who serve the profession so well. I could not have got through the last year without their constant help, advice and support. If there is one message I would like to pass on to our successors it is that they should continue to stand fast against all inroads by the State which would result in the loss of our professional independence. If the legal profession should ever become subservient to the State the rights and liberties of the public would be in jeopardy. The freedom of legal profession from State control or influence is as important as the free dom of the press. The motion for the adoption of the report was put to the meeting and passed unanimously. 8. Thursday, 25th November, 1971 was appointed as the date of the next annual general meeting. 9. On the motion of Mr. Desmond J. Collins, the chair. Mr. Collins then proposed a vote of thanks to the President for his services to the Society during the past year. The motion was carried with acclamation. The President returned thanks and the Chairman declared the meeting closed. 132

increased recently by in postal charges, which of course affect our pro fession particularly. We had already been hard hit by the increased telephone charges. Communi cation is the life blood of our business and we simply must use the post office and the telephone. A journalist discussing our problems recently said "Medicine and surgery have streamlined into techniques which have made heart transplants possible while the profession of the law clings tenaciously to its ponderous machinery". This is not to compare like with like. The technique of transplants has been paralleled by for instance the creation and development of company law but ask any member of the public who has sat waiting in the outpatients department of a hos pital or in the local clinic or indeed in many private doctors waiting rooms or has waited for a bed in hospital if he thinks the machinery of the medical profession has been streamlined. Again the writer says that John Citizen can sell a car costing £2,000 in five minutes but that the pur chase of a house or plot of land is complicated and costly. This is too facile — a car is in the realm of consumer goods — a house or land is relatively permanent. Indeed its purchase may be a once in a lifetime buy and (in any case) the whole history of land law is involved. In theory this has been simplified and if the Land Registry worked as intended, it would result in cheap, swift transfer of land. At the moment however, the transfer of registered land is expensive and slow as a result of increased fees payable to the State and departmental delays. We eagerly await the proposals of the Minister in regard to the jurisdiction of the District and Circuit Courts. The amount of the increases have been rumoured for months and 1 hope that the reason for this delay is that full consideration is being given to the problem of providing additional Courts and additional judges and in general to the practical consequences of substantial increases in jurisdiction. I have already said that we support the suggestion that solicitors should be eligible for appointment to the Circuit Court bench. I think that because of their day to day contact with the public (which barristers do not have). Solicitors may well have an advantage when called to sit in judgment on their fellow-men. The report makes it clear that we are coming to the end of a year which has seen considerable expansion in the work of the Society. The statistics and other details in the report give you some idea of the amount and variety of the work which the savage increases