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Council stated that the provisions of the Bill referred

to had been inserted in the Bill at the instance of the

Labour Party and that while he himself was not

prepared

to move an amendment in the Dail

deleting them, he would not oppose such an amend–

ment if the Council could obtain the agreement of

all parties.

Mr. P. F. O'Reilly and

the Secretary attended

at the Dail and interviewed members of the Labour

Party in an. endeavour to bring home to them the

inequitable and impolitic nature of the provisions

of the Bill referred to above.

It was suggested to

the Labour members

that

the Bill should not

exclude the right of audience of solicitors or Counsel

and that in lieu of a Chairman without legal qualifi–

cations it would be advisable to provide that the

Chairman should be a Judge of the High Court;

and that a tribunal under such chairmanship would

be far more likely to command the respect and

confidence of the general public than a purely lay

tribunal, probably under the chairmanship of a civil

servant which could not be described in any sense

as independent.

The Council regret to have to

report that the representations made to the Labour

Party were ineffective. Amendments on the lines

of those suggested by the Council were moved in

the Dail on the Committee Stage of the Bill but

they were opposed by the Labour Party and the

Minister refused to accept them. The Council are

convinced, that from the point of view of the general

public, the provisions of this Bill in excluding the

right of legal representation are unwise and that they

will not lead to an economy in time in the presenta–

tion of the cases of parties appearing before the

Court or any substantial saving of expense. They

may well have the contrary effect in so far as the

Court may to a large extent attempt to adjudicate

on legal issues without any expert legal assistance.

TERMS OF APPOINTMENT

OF SOLICITORS TO LOCAL

AUTHORITIES.

Solicitor

to Offaly County Council and

Tullamore Urban District Council

ABOUT twelve months ago the County Manager for

County Offaly published an advertisement inviting

applications for the position of solicitor to the

County Council on the following terms :

i. Costs should be taxed annually and in the

event of the taxed costs (excluding outlay

and travelling expenses) exceeding £500,

the solicitor should accept £500 in full

discharge of his professional charges.

2. The

solicitor nominated

to maintain

a

business office in Tullamore.

3. The position to be non-pensionable.

The Council objected to the advertisement and it

was withdrawn.

The following paragraph recently appeared in a

local newspaper :

" With reference to the position of solicitor

to Offaly County Council and Tullamore Urban

District Council, Mr. M. A. Veale, County

Manager for Offaly, has made the following

order : ' Minister to be requested to sanction

creation of part-time, permanent, non-pension–

able post of solicitor to the Offaly County

Council and Tullamore Urban District Council

with exclusive salary of £675 a year, of which

£75 shall be payable by the Tullamore Urban

District Council, which salary is to cover the

provision of staff and office accommodation

in the town of Tullamore and all necessary

office expenditure as well as travelling sub–

sistence expenses in cases in the Courts situate

in the County of Offaly but excluding out of

pocket expenses and fees ofCounsel engaged with

the prior approval of the Local Authority

concerned;

the salary shall also cover all

duties of the post including parliamentary

business, attendance at meetings of the County

Council or of the District Council or any

Committees thereof, and also all work arising

out of enquiries and arbitrations.' "

The position as to the appointment of solicitor

to Local Authorities appears to be as follows :

The County Manager exercises the executive func–

tions of the Local Authority, including the appoint–

ment of officers and servants and professional

advisers.

The County Manager may either

(a)

avail of the procedure in the Local Authorities'

(Officers and Employees) Act, 1926, or

(K)

appoint

the solicitor himself.

If he adopts course

(a)

the

appointment

is made

from among

candidates

selected by the Local Appointments Commissioners

and the appointment is invariably made on the basis

of a fixed salary.

The solicitor appointed then

becomes an officer of the Local Authority, but

apparently not a pensionable officer unless his

appointment is whole-time (see Local Government

Act, 1925), Section 42. The County Manager may

also adopt course

(U)

as he has the power always

vested in Local Authorities to employ a solicitor

to do work on the ordinary solicitor and client basis

and to pay him his taxed costs (Local Government

Act, 1898, Section 17 and Borough Funds (Ireland)

Act, 1888, Section 3). The solicitor is employed

ad

hoc

on each occasion.

In the view of the Local

Government Department he is not an officer of the

Local Authority and has no right to be employed