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We have to be ever watchful, but yet realistic, in rapidly
could be dealt with separately either by discontinuing his
membership of the group or loading his premium after a
period of consistently unfavourable experience. This
would mean that the proportion of uninsured offices,
estimated at between 14% and 20% of the total who are
at present uninsured would have to agree to join the
group and accept the obligations of membership. It was
suggested that the Society's bye-laws should be amended
to provide that membership of a professional inseuranc
indemnity group would be a condition of membership.
This however is probably impracticable and would not
I am sure obtain the unanimous support of our members
for a proposal of this kind.
The best available alternative which is at present under
investigation by a committee of the Council with Messrs.
Coyle & Co. Insurance Brokers who have been handling
this matter for some ears is to try to develop a group
scheme with the offices who replied to the Society's
questionnaire as a nucleus. Insurance cover would have
to be adequate and it might be necessary to provide that
each policy should carry an excess. The fact that each
member of the group would bear a certain proportion of
the loss would in itself be an inducement to carefulness
and adequate supervision in the execution of professional
business.
At the moment all I can say that this problem is
engaging the unremitting attention of a committee of the
Council. It would be misleading to say that professional
negligence insurance is going to become cheap. So called
professional negligence is often the result of ill luck as
much as any definite culpability. The necessity of dele
gating work, the complex nature of our laws and the
continual changing spectrum of rules and regulations
with which we have to deal widens the possible field of
mistake and consequently of negligence. If with the help
of our insurance consultants, we can get a group scheme
off the ground we shall at least be in a position to satisfy
ourselves that premiums charged are not unreasonable
and we would also have informaton as to the amount and
causes of losses. The matter is beng actvely pursued.
THE KING'S HOSPITAL
The King's Hospital, which the Society has purchased,
was formerly the Blue Coat Hospital and was incor
porated by Charles II in 1670. The present building was
erected in 1773 and is a noble edifice of Portland Stone
consisting of a Centre and Wings extending three hundred
feet. Our plans embodying minimum essential interior
alterations and the erection of a new administrative block
to the rere have met with general approval, and we all
look forward to next Summer when we will obtain posses
sion and the work can be commenced. I would like to
thank the Governors of the School and in particular the
Reverend G. S. Megahy
the Headmaster, for their
courtesy in permitting so many of us to visit the School
and be shown over the building from time to time. Our
future headquarters will be a worthy showplace for
visitors to our capital city and the citizens may, there
fore, soon have something of which to be particularly
proud. The King's Hospital is situate in a part of the
City which has known better days, but it is quite central
and perhaps we may start a new era of improvement for
the locality.
GENERAL
In this country, as in England, we have experienced a
growing tendency for encroachment from various quarters
in what has always been regarded as strictly our domain.
changing conditions. We must, it seems, be prepared to
to appear before the Fair Trades Commission and also to
appear before, and participate in, the Body which the
Minister for Justice suggests should supplant our Statutory
Rules Committees. We have made representations to the
Department when rumour had it that consideration was
being given to the amendment of the law whereby we
would have only one Taxing Master. We strongly oppose
any such move.
As a professional body we want no more than fair
treatment both as
to the scope of our services, and
reasonable remuneration
therefor.
It has often been
stressed by my predecessors that on the shoulders of the
Legal Profession rests the assurance of the freedom of
the individual. I am convinced that the people of this
country have a keen appreciation of this, and of the vital
role Solicitors play in modern society.
We have implemented the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme,
and continue to implement it, despite inadequate finan
cial reward. One might recall that the main reason for
our initial opposition was simply that we were satisfied
that in the field of crime no citizen ever lacked the ser
vices of a lawyer merely because of lack of means, and
the service was always available voluntarily. I believe
that Civil Legal Aid should and must surely come and
I am proud to be able to compliment the Law Students
on establishing several Bureaux in Dublin and its suburbs
whereby voluntary aid and advice is given to the poorer
section of the community. I exhort Dublin Solicitors in
particular to come forward and offer their time and
assistance to these students and in particular those of
my colleogues who have
either wholly or partially
retired, and who might therefore be better able to spare
the time.
There is already in existence a charitable orgnization
namely the St. Anne's Secretariat of the Society of St.
Vincent de Paul, which has provided free civil and occa
sionally criminal legal aid in Dublin since 1930, and that
organization has confirmed to me that the number of
cases where a wife seeks advice and legal aid to obtain
a legal separation has steadily increased, particularly in
recent years. The pattern of these matrimonial cases is
dismally familiar. The couple married young. In most
cases they live in a Corporation house or flat and they
usually have several children. The husband has been a
habitual heavy drinker, or he is a mentally unstable
person, who either has been treated as a voluntary patient
in a mental hospital, or his conduct has given strong
indications that he should have such treatment. His em
ployment history may be bad, though a heavy drinker eh
may have a trade or skill giving him good wages when
he works. There is an inadequate contribution by the
husband to the hohusehold expenses and sometimes none
at all. He makes little contribution to maintaining family
life with his wife and children. He may be living apart
but more usually he is living in the family home demand
ing his meals and marital rights, and usually has a history
of wife beating. He sometimes has a pattern of going
out nearly every night without his wife, refusing to say
where he is going or has been, coming home drunk and
quarrelsome. In a minority of cases there are complaints
of association with other women, known or unknown.
Some of these husbands ill treat their children, some will
not, but some chillren in the family are mentally dis
turbed in a majority of these cases. The wife very often
sheows
signs
of
the need of
treament
for mental
upset, apparently the result of prolonged strain and
physical ill treatment and financial worry. In the vast
majority of these cases one would be able to accept the
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