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left at a pre-War level in order to keep down the
cost of litigation when in fact such expenses very
often do make the real difference between expensive
litigation and litigation at a reasonable price.
In this regard there is probably a contributory
cause towards the increase in expenses to witnesses
in so far as some sittings of the Circuit Court in the
Country are not all that could be desired from the
point of view of accessibility to the public, having
regard to the unsatisfactory transport position to
which I have referred. We note with satisfaction
that under the new Courts of Justice Bill, the Judge
occupying the new office of President of the Circuit
Court will be the person responsible for arranging
Sittings of the Court throughout the country, and
I think that anywhere it is found that existing
Sittings do not satisfy the needs of the public,
representation should be made to the Council by
Local Bar Associations
to have
such matters
remedied and thereby ensure that in all areas the
Circuit Court is, what it was intended to be, a Court
within easy reach of the citizen for the purpose of
speedy and inexpensive litigation.
The attention of the Council in the past half year
has also been directed to the question of appoint–
ments of solicitors to Local Bodies in a part-time
capacity. As you know it has always been the view
of the Council that such appointments should, both
from the point of view of the general public, the
local authority itself and the profession, be made
on the basis of taxed costs. Our past President
dealt fully with this matter when addressing you
last year.
A deputation from the Council was
recently received by the Minister for Local Govern–
ment on this question, and having given the deputa–
tion a very sympathetic and helpful hearing, the
Minister informed them that the question was really
one
in
the absolute discretion of
the Local
Authorities concerned and one for their decision
in other words it was a matter for absolute decision
by each County Manager. Here again the Council
have, following the interview with the Minister
to which I have referred, appointed a special Com–
mittee to deal with the whole matter and they are
hopeful that a speedy and satisfactory result will be
forthcoming.
You will recollect that some years ago the Council
had occasion to protest against the new practice,
which was then introduced, in the matter of collec–
tion of annuities due to the Land Commission,
such annuities being collectable by the Sheriff after
he had received from the Land Commission
a
certificate of the amount due and without any
intervention by a Court to say whether the amount
in fact was due or not. Again this question has
arisen in connection with the Agricultural Credit
Act, 1947, in which Act it is provided that the
8
Agricultural Credit Corporation has now got similar
powers to the Land Commission to recover moneys
due to the Corporation by sending a certificate of
the amount due, under the seal of the Corporation,
to the County Registrar who will then be entitled
to levy execution without any Court Order. When
this Bill was published the Council immediately
appointed a Deputation to wait on the Parliamentary
Secretary, Department of Finance, to put forward
their
reasonable objections
to
this procedure.
Unfortunately their representations were of no
avail and the procedure is now in the Act as passed
by Dail Eireann. This is, of course, from the point
of view of the ordinary citizen, a deplorable attempt
to invest a Statutory Corporation with very drastic
powers to collect debts due to the Corporation,
powers which the ordinary citizen does not, would
not, and could not be allowed to enjoy ;
indeed
one is driven to speculate as to whether eventually
all Statutory or quasi-Statutory Bodies will not be
given similar power so that they can, in the matter
of collection of debts due to them, be outside the
jurisdiction of our Courts, because that is what in
fact is now the position with the Land Commission
and
the Agricultural Credit Corporation.
It is
certainly to be hoped that for the sake of the pre–
servation of the rights of the individual citizen no
further efforts in this direction will be made by the
Legislature.
The lengthy labours by your Council in con–
nection with the Solicitors Bill are, I believe, now
drawing to a close, but there are one or two points
of great importance to the profession which have
been referred back to them by the Department of
Justice and are at present under active consideration.
It may very likely happen that a General Meeting
of the Society will have to be called to decide finally
on at least one of the questions arising.
In conclusion, I would like to pay tribute to the
excellent work of our Secretary, Mr. Plunkett,
whose ability to put before the Council and its
Committees data of an. exhaustive and accurate
nature makes their task so much easier and more
expeditious.
At the conclusion of the Chairman's address, Mr.
Sean O hUadhaigh addressed the meeting on the
subject of the application to the Labour Court by
the Workers' Union of Ireland for the establish–
ment of a Joint Labour Committee. The Chairman
informed Mr. 0 hUadhaigh that this matter was
about to be considered by the Council.
Mr. Ivan Howe asked that the Council should
make representations in the appropriate quarters
about the unsystematic manner in which appeals
from the Circuit Court to the High Court are listed
and stated that cases appear suddenly in the list
without warning to the solicitors. He suggested