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GAZETTE
P R
I
D E N T S
M
APRIL 1992
Independent Advice
on the Line
In his address to the parchment
ceremony on 10 April, Law Society
President.
Adrian Bourke,
strongly
attacked provisions in the Solicitors
(Amendment) Bill. 1991 on
conveyancing and probate
flnestioning the Government's
motivation and whether there was
any public demand for these services
Í9_be provided by financial
institutions.
" The Solicitors Bill, 1991, now being
debated in the Oireachtas, causes me
a degree of sadness. I can celebrate
the good points, which the Society
first sought when it asked the
Government to bring in the
Solicitors Bill and indeed presented
Government with the bones of
that Bill on which flesh was to be
put.
"But it is my duty, as President of
this Society, to draw to your
attention some of the more difficult
and worrying issues that loom over
your legal lives, even as you start
them today.
"There has been nothing, of which I
am aware, since I first entered legal
hfe in 1965, which has indicated to
Government that, in the areas of
conveyancing and probate lawyers are
anything other than competent.
There have been no outrageous
Prices charged, there have been no
scandals, the countryside is not
littered with bad titles and from my
researches I am unaware of any
public demand for these services to
be provided by any persons other
than lawyers.
" I would remind you at this point
that we do not sell money, we do
not run credit cards, or building
societies, or life assurance, or travel
agencies, nor do we seek to extract
teeth, do veterinary medicine on
Adrian Bourke
small animals or take out your
appendix!
Law Reform
"But we are good at conveyancing
and probate. We have been trained,
well trained, at great expense. There
are fine legal offices throughout this
State, carefully honed to look after
our clients' interests in those areas.
We have available to us, within the
Bar Library, able barristers, junior
and senior alike, capable of
rendering expert advice to us in
these matters, or assisting us should
we come to a court situation in
either conveyancing or in probate.
Many of the laws of Ireland, in
these areas, have been developed
within those very courts, while our
legislators and Governments have
failed to provide the reforms really
needed, especially in land law.
"Then, the Fair Trade Commission
sat, first with a membership of three,
then the participation of two, and
finally a report. This report, in
which there was disagreement on key
issues, says that conveyancing and
probate should be more competitive,
reflecting the trend in England. Must
we always slavishly follow as John
Bull's Other Island the failed
Thatcher policies? Government, in
its wisdom, has resolved to hand
these services on a plate to banks,
building societies and trust
corporations.
Employment
"These particular provisions of the
Bill have been debated by two
general meetings of the Society,
held in November and December,
1991. The Council has debated the
provisions. Bar Associations, all
26 of them throughout the country,
have considered these sections.
They are universally viewed as
detrimental to the legal profession
which you are joining today. They
are unnecessary, they are an
intrusion, and they are unwanted,
because they seek to assuage a public
demand which is not evident. They
hand over to banks and building
societies an area where citizens
require great privacy, skilled
assistance and independent advice.
Can the financial conglomerates
be trusted now to do a day's
work, not to go on strike -
something which lawyers have never
done in the history of the State?
These provisions have the potential
to leave the industry and business of
solicitors' practices devastated
throughout the land, with
unemployment likely for solicitors
and for their worthwhile and
loyal staff in their offices in
every parish. This is not an
alarmist view, it is an inevitable
fact.
" The Law Society calls on all
its members to use their combined
influence to make it clear to
members of the Oireachtas that
these provisions are unjust and
unnecessary and should be dropped
from the Bill. For its part, the
Society continues to lobby
strenuously on your behalf
and on behalf of the public's
right to independent legal
advice''.
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