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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