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tion to the extent that I have mentioned it is clear that
there will have to be considerable increase in the finan
ces of the Society first of all to set them up and to
keep
them properly staffed and
in efficient working
order. Therefore
the Council have approved of
the
increases
in
revenue which appear before you
in a
subsequent resolution and which I trust will commend
itself to this meeting.
Professional Remuneration
The various scales of costs now in operation are very
much out of date having regard to the rapid fall in the
value of monies
in
recent years accompanied by a
spectacular rise in the cost of running a solicitors office
which is now going to be very considerably increased
as a result of the recent financial resolutions. Applica
tions are being made to the various costs committees
for suitable adjustments to meet these variations. There
is such a number of these committees and their member
ship
is
so diverse with
the consequent difficulty
in
assembling meetings,
that all
these applications are
extremely tedious and in many cases when the adjusted
scales have been issued they are already out of date.
Therefore while these applications will be pursued with
vigour and urgency by the Council it must not be thought
that because no results appear for a considerable time
that it is due to any lack of zeal or industry on the
part of the Council. In this connection I am personally
glad to see that the Minister for Justice proposes
to
set up one committee to deal with all matters of costs.
It would have considerable advantages. It would lead
to, I hope greater expedition in arriving at decisions
and it would lead to more rational relationship between
the costs payable in different jurisdictions and fields of
activity which are now in many cases quite unrelated and
in some cases even contradictory. The constitution of this
committee and the finality of its decisions are of course
of infinite importance to
the profession. The Council
have
therefore already sought from
the Minister for
Justice an opportunity of discussing with him
these
vital matters. One of the first things any such committee
would have to do would be
to
inform itself of
the
principles upon which solicitors remuneration are to be
based. If it follows the lead of the Prices and Incomes
Board in England it will be on the basis of cost plus
profit. Quite clearly this is not the principal upon which
present committees operate. There is a
large field of
work for which the solicitor is paid below cost and
sometimes nothing at all. This
infers that the prin
ciple of cross subsidisation is accepted by the committees
and it is very difficult to see how in the absence of
full legal aid in both Civil and Criminal matters any
other system would work.
The Criminal Legal Aid system as at present
in
operation is little more than rudimentary and of course
there is no Civil legal aid. If the principle of cost plus
profit is to be the basis it would mean that the solicitor
would have to discard altogether the business for which
he receives at present little or no remuneration and
that would mean that poorer persons would be deprived
of adequate or any access to legal remedies. This could
not be tolerated in any truly democratic dispensation.
It would seem therefore that any change from the system
of cross subsidisation to cost plus profit basis for costs
in extricably and inescapably involved with
legal aid
which is now in operation in almost every country.
It
is quite clear that Civil legal aid mcst come sooner or
later and there does not seem to be very much point in
postponing it, as the length of postponment cannot in
any event be very long.
In the matter of presentation of our case
to cost
committees of one kind or another the Councils' repre
sentatives are greatly handicapped as
indeed are the
committees themselves by a lack of proper statistics. A
questionaire was issued some years ago to supply this
gap but the result was disappointing. I think this was
not surprising because solicitors as a general rule do
not have records which lend themselves to analysis under
the heads which are required. What we will have to do
is to make a time cost survey over a period in a number
of offices covering a broad view of the profession both
in size and geographically and in that way assemble
a body of information upon which a scientific and well
documented case can be constituted and presented. This
operation will have to receive the most urgent attention
from the new Council.
Education
The matter of the education of students and the work
of the Court of Examiners has been during the past year
of extraordinarily burdensome proportions. One of the
reasons for this, although not the only one, is the num
ber of applications for exemption from the preliminary
examination. The Council after the most careful con
sideration and after taking
the best advice available
decided that as from the present year under review no
student's application for exemption would be considered
except on I he basis that he had an open matriculation
examination of one or other of our universities and that
a matriculation acquired on the strength of having a
Leaving Certificate examination
result would not be
accepted and that no other exemption would be given
except in the most unusual circumstances. This was well
publicised
and was
-circulated
on more
than
one
occasion to all the Secondary Schools in Ireland on the
Department of Educations' mailing
list but notwith
standing that it is quite extraordinary the number of
students who are apparently unaware of
this require
ment.
It
can
be
stated
that
a
student
who
has
had
a
Leaving Certificate matriculation
be
fore
1967
and
has
in
the
meantime
been
pursuing legal studies will be considered for exemption
but not otherwise. We keep an open door to our pro
fession
but
in
the
interest
of
the
profession
ultimately
the
Court
of
Examiners
must
be
satisfied
at
time
of
entry
of
the
student
that
he
has
the
necessary
educational
and
intellectual
attainment
to
permit
him
successfully
to
accept
the
course
of
education
prescribed
and
pass
the
necessary
examinations. To
admit
a
student who
is not of
this calibre
is a neglect of duty by
the
Court of Examiners and the Society causing as it does
misery to the student, financial loss to his parents and no
good to anybody. If you would look at page 21 of the
Annual Report you will see
the extraordinary picture
which presents itself and the seriousness of the problem
with which the Council is faced. The number of In
dentures registered in 1968 was sixteen up on the very
high figure for last year, was more than twice the num
ber of entries for 1964 and more than three times the
number of entries for 1962. It remains to be seen how
these new solicitors will be absorbed into the profession.
I believe they will, provided the rate of entry is stabilised
or even reduced somewhat but in the meantime great
strain is put o~i the Council's Secretariat and upon the
teaching facilities. We have retained a hall in which
lectures are now given but the difficulty of synchronis-