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members of this Society. The report will be
published in the Society's Gazette in due course.
Every President in recent years has expressed the
importance of Solicitors becoming members of
their Local Bar Associations. Last year, my pre
decessor, Mr. Shaw, interested himself in the revival
of two dormant Associations in Longford and
Sligo, as a result I am glad to be able to report that
the Bar Association in County Sligo has been
reformed, and if there is anything that I can do,
or the Council can do, towards a similar state of
affairs coming into being in Longford it will have
our fullest support.
Earlier this year the Government set up a Com
mission on Income Taxation, and your Council
were asked to submit a Memorandum of evidence
to this Commission.
In this connection the Council
would like the views of the members on the matters
referred to in the Annual Report, and I would
earnestly suggest that any member who is interested
in this matter would let us have his view at the
earliest opportunity, so that if the Council so think
fit they may be included in a Memorandum of
Evidence to be submitted by the Society to the
Commission.
In last year's report of the Council it was men
tioned that a Memorandum had been submitted
to the Statutory Committee under the Land Act,
1933, asking that the level of item charges for
conveyancing business in the Land Commission
should be brought into line with the scale of charges
for other conveyancing business, and a copy of this
memorandum was printed as an Appendix to the
last Report.
I regret to have to state that no
final decision has been made by the Land Commis
sion. This matter has been the subject of negotia
tions which have been going on for some time
with the Land Commission, and your Council are
pressing that the matter should be brought to a
conclusion. There is no doubt that the present
charges allowed for such business are unremunera-
tive, and that the work involves a disproportionate
expenditure of time and effort for
insufficient
reward.
Arising out of this matter, I should mention
the subject of the payment of purchase money and
costs in depreciated Land Bonds ;
the position has
not been rectified by the issue of new Bonds at a
higher rate of interest, as it is now quite clear that
there is little or no market for the Bonds on the
Stock Exchange, and owners and their Solicitors
who receive payment in these Bonds have some
difficulty in realising them.
It seems to me a most
unsatisfactory state of affairs that where a Depart
ment of Stale is given statutory powers to acquire
land compulsorily they do not pay for same in
cash, but in depreciated Land Bonds.
You will see also in the Appendix to the Council's
Report, which has been circulated, a Memorandum
on the subject of the Land Commission procedure.
This Memorandum was prepared by Mr. Shaw for
the Council in an effort to expedite and make easy
for both the Land Commission and the members
of the profession the investigation and completion
of sales through the Land Commission, and so that
these matters
could be attended
to be cor
respondence, without the necessity of personal
attendance at the Land Commission Offices.
Both my predecessor and I have already referred
in half-yearly Reports to the increases in Court
fees, these became effective by the Orders of the
Minister for Justice in October, 1956 ;
a memo
randum was subsequently submitted by the Council
to the Minister showing the effect of certain of
these increases in particular cases. As a result of
that memorandum
the Minister has agreed
to
receive a deputation on the subject, but no date,
time, or place has yet been fixed, and we on the
Council and I personally hope that there will be
no further delay by the Minister or the Department
in receiving this deputation, as the matter is con
sidered by the Council as of major importance
not alone to the profession but to the public.
As you have seen from the
Gazette,
the Minister
for Local Government in accordance with Section 31
of the Labourers Act, 1906, asked for my views
as President of the Society on a proposed new
Order abolishing the special costs scale under the
Labourers' Acts, and suggesting that bills of costs
of solicitors acting for vendors and purchasers
should be taxed by the general Taxing Office
under the provisions of S.R.G.O., 1884 to 1951.
After obtaining the views of interested solicitors
and the profession generally, I informed the Minister
that I had no objection to the proposed Order
which was duly made on the 5th July, 1957, and
came into operation on the ist of October of this
year. The Order was printed in the July issue of
issue of the
Gazette,
with an explanatory note on
its effect, particularly in regard to the election of the
item charges, which should be studied by all
members.
As you are aware, a Commission was set up some
time ago to deal with the matter of Workmen's
Compensation. At the request of the Commis
sion the Council submitted a statement of their
views in the matter within its terms of reference;
in the view of the Council the present code of
Workmen's Compensation Law required only minor
changes and amendments.