23 / 736
cal card-holders and other necessitous persons;
and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Mr. S. Flanagan :
In regard to criminal prose–
cutions,
the Criminal Justice (Legal Aid) Act,
1962, and the Criminal Justice (Legal Aid) Regu–
lations, 1965, provide for the payment by the
State of fees and expenses of medical practitioners
who give professional evidence at the hearing of a
case in relation to which a certificate for free legal
aid has been granted. The expenses of obtaining
medical and technical reports for the defence in
such a case are also payable.
In regard to civil actions, I should explain that
health authorities are under statutory obligation
to provide various hospital, medical and other
health services. This is the limit of their obliga–
tions to individuals and I see no reason why
medical expenses rather than any other type of
expenses should be singled out for special atten–
tion in asking health authorities to bear them.
Mr. Ryan : The Minister knows how beneficial
it can be to the restoration of physical health to
have a legal claim settled. Having regard to the
growing practice of
the medical profession
to
refuse to furnish medical reports or attend courts
on credit, and their insistence on the payment of
fees in advance, would the Minister not consider
health authorities advancing these fees in necessi–
tous cases just as they pay home assistance pend–
ing the settlement of civil claims? The problem
is growing?
Mr. S. Flanagan :
I would certainly consider
advancing the fees. I think that is a good sugges-
ion. I am also fully aware of the fact that what
these men charge is not in line with what the
taxing master is willing to give.
MAYO SOLICITORS BAR ASSOCIATION
At the annual general meeting of the Association
held in Castlebar on 17th April 1967 the following
officers were elected for the coming year :
Presi–
dent, Mr. Lorcan Gill, Westoirt; Vice-President,
Mr. F. Conway; Treasurer, Miss B. Hynes,
Castlebar; Hon. Secretary, Mr. Joseph Gilmartin,
Castlebar.
The Association at their meeting decided to
hold a dinner with Mr. Michael James O'Hara
as guest to mark his appointment as District
Justice in Cork.
HOLDING OF DEPOSITS
As a result of a meeting with the Auctioneers
Association the Society have agreed to recommend
that where members hold deposits in the case of
sale by public auction they should take all reason–
able steps to see that the auctioneer's advertising
expenses are paid from the deposit.
THE COMMON MARKET AND COMMON
LAW
The Common Market and Common Law —
being
Legal Aspects
of Foreign
Investment and
Economic Integration in the European Com–
munity, with Ireland as a prototype. By John
Temple Lang. Large 8vo, pp. xxxvm +573.
Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1966.
£4-10-0.
The author of this book is a well-known 'Irish
solicitor who undertook this special study under
the auspices of the American Bar Foundation of
Chicago. The work is the fruit of several years of
intense research and Mr. Temple Lang must be
congratulated for the deep scholarship and learn–
ing which are so evident from a cursory perusal
of this
magnum opus.
It would not be possible in
a short review to do justice to the many interesting
problems raised, and one must needs confine one–
self to the fundamental parts. The work is divided
into four main parts :
Part I which is
the most interesting for
lawyers, describes the institutions of the Com–
munity, with special references to the changes
necessitated by the accession of a new member,
as well as the constitutional and other basic legal
questions which arise out of the State's new rela–
tionship with the Community institutions; this is
the immediate vital Irish task forcing us particu–
larly as General de Gaulle is determined to pro–
tract the negotiations indefinitely. What is not
often realised
is
that the Treaty of Rome, to
which new members must subscribe is in fact a
Constitution for a future political United States
of Europe. It
is gratifying that
the formerly
revered principle of Stare Deusis has now been
buried in Ireland as well as in England, and thus
decisions of the Community Court, which conflict
with decisions of National Courts, will be more
easily enforceable. The Community Court must
at all times decide whether the act complained of
is illegal under Community law, and not under
National law, and this decision is absolutely bind–
ing on members. One must agree that Article 177,
which compels National Courts to refer questions
of interpretation of the Treaty of Rome to the
Court of the Community, will assume great im–
portance in the future. Space does not permit
discussion of constitutional amendments in Ire-
19