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ning control where it does not materially alter the
appearance of the house. The construction of a
new extension at the rear of a house is also free
from control, provided that the original floor area
of the house is not exceeded by more than 120
square feet or, in the case of a two-storey exten
sion, 90 square feet on each floor and that the
height of the house is not exceeded. Apart from
these exemptions, the reconstruction or extension
of a house or any alterations which materially
affects its external appearance is likely to be sub
ject to planning control and permission must be
obtained before work is put in hand.
Reprinted with permission from
"A House
of Your Own"
published by the Stationery
Office.
LEGAL NEWS OF THE MONTH
LEGAL,
SYSTEM
FOB REVIEW
Hire Purchase is First on List
Mr. Justice Kenny is head of a research group
on the operation of the legal system in Ireland.
Initially, this legal research body which has been
set up in association with the Economic and
Social Research Institute, will look into the work
ings of the hire purchase system and some aspects
of court procedure.
The work will be carried out by graduate
students working with the advice and help of
the group, and the findings will be published by
the Institute.
Other members of the group are Professor
Michael Fogarty of the Institute; Prof. Kaim
Caudle; Brendan McGrath, president of
the
Incorporated Law Society; Senator Prof. Mary
Bourke; R. M. Neville; Max Abrahamson and
John Temple Lang.
The group intends to arrange for graduates
working in the Institute to do research into the
actual operation of certain aspects of the legal
system, as distinct from the way the system is
supposed to work.
One idea behind the formation of the group
is the belief that law reform in this country must
spring into the existing system and Irish needs.
The apparent acceptance by Irish lawyers gen
erally that all is well with the legal system has
been supported for the past 50 years by a disdain
for finding out the actual facts, and the purpose
of the group is to establish facts (especially statis
tical data) which will assist the government and
others concerned with reform of legal procedures.
Financial support is sought by the group from
commercial,
industrial, professional and com
munal bodies and firms which are likely to gain
particularly by improvements in legal procedures,
apart from sharing the general gains to the com
munity from the better administration of justice.
The initial projects are one study of hire pur
chase of fairly well-defined and limited scope
and one broad project on civil procedure which
will be broken down into a number of particular
investigations.
Dealing with hire purchase,
the group says
that proceedings under this heading constitute one
of the most numerous of civil proceedings in the
Irish courts. Hire purchase transactions amount to
the order of £65 million at any one time and
represent a high proportion
(45
per
cent, at
December 1969) of total consumers' credit.
The research carried out by the group will
investigate all the facets of hire purchase.
The proposed investigation into general court
procedure will deal with:
levels and trends in
work loads of the various courts; the proportion
of the time of the judges and the court officials
taken up with the various classes of business,
enabling an estimate to be made of the cost of
providing a court remedy for particular kinds of
dispute.
Other aspects of this investigation will include
the period of time between a cause of action
arising and the issue of proceedings; the period
of time between the issue of proceedings and the
hearing; the time spent at hearing; and how these
times are spent.
It is hoped to publish a preliminary report
within 12 months from commencement of the
investigation.
The group says that from these subsequent in
vestigations it may examine the procedure leading
up to trial and the proportion of the time at hear
ing taken up with oral evidence on formal or other
matters which might be dealt with by pre-trial
167