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atmosphere, and I believe that all such meetings
enhance the morale of the profession. The Council
will consider the possibility of holding a similar
week-end in connection with the Summer general
meeting at some place in the country away from
Dublin as at least a biennial event. Since then my
wife and I and the Secretary, Mr. Eric Plunkett,
have received the most generous hospitality as
guests of the Incorporated Law Society of Northern
Ireland in Belfast and as guests of the Law Society
of Scotland at Gleneagles. Mrs. Plunkett was also a
guest at Gleneagles, and I would like to tender to
the Presidents and Law Societies of Northern
Ireland and Scotland our grateful thanks for all the
kindness which we received from them.
I know that there is considerable concern amongst
our members at the delay in the introduction of the
Solicitors (Amendment) Bill.
I can only say that
this matter has
received close and continuous
attention from the Council, and we have had a
number of conferences with the Department of
Justice to try to agree on the provisions to be
inserted in this Bill. It is a matter of great complexity
to secure adequate powers in order to regulate the
profession while avoiding any infringement of the
Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court.
The urgency of obtaining the necessary powers
must be obvious to all our members when they
realise that the claims already received against the
Compensation Fund are more than double the
contributions to the Fund paid by solicitors since
the 6th January 1955. It is important that it should
be generally known that the Council only accepted
the obligation to establish a Compensation Fund
on the definite understanding that the Society would
be given adequate powers to regulate and control its
own members so as to protect the Fund against
claims. These powers have now been taken away
by the judgment of the Supreme Court.
Unless
suitable powers can be obtained under the new
Solicitors Amendment Bill or the obligations of the
Compensation Fund are relaxed the burden of
increased contributions to the Compensation Fund
are likely to become more than the members of the
profession can bear.
I would like to acknowledge
the consideration which we have received from the
Minister for Justice, and the interest taken in the
matter by Mr. Coyne, Secretary of the Department
of Justice, and the help and wise advice which he
has given us. I would also like to pay tribute to the
great help which the Vice-Presidents and I have
received in these negotiations with the Department
from Mr. Arthur Cox and Mr. George Overend in
particular, and of course from our most competent
Secretary, Eric Plunkett. When the Amendment
Bill is finally introduced in the Dail it is of great
importance that all our members should do their
utmost to influence their T.D.'s and Senators to
support it, and to get it passed into law without
any unnecessary delays or amendments which might
defeat its purpose.
In my address at Killarney I commented strongly
on the deplorable position which had arisen in
connection with the costs of Land Commission
proceedings which had received only a nominal
increase in the last 3 5 years in spite of the complete
change in the value of money since the 1923 Land
Act was passed. I am glad to be able to inform you
that since then, and since the Report of the Council
was printed, a compromise of our claim has been
accepted and the item charges in the Land Com
mission Scale will shortly be increased by fifty per
cent, on the present costs payable. For this satis
factory result we are almost entirely indebted to
the great help and understanding of the position
which we received primarily from the Judicial Com
missioner Mr. Justice Teevan, and subsequently
from the new Minister for Lands, Mr. Moran, and
I would like respectfully to thank both of them. It
is a great personal pleasure to me that this increase
in the Land Commission Costs has been secured in
my year of office as Mr. Dermot Shaw and I have
been closely concerned with these negotiations for
the past three years.
The standard of living of the solicitor's profession,
as in most other professions, has seriously declined
in the last 20 years owing to a failure to obtain an
adequate increase in costs to even remotely approach
the change in the cost of living, the depreciation of
the currency and the enormous increase in overhead
expenses. Both the Council and the Policy Com
mittee have this situation continually in their minds
and are always striving to improve the financial
position of the members of the profession, but much
of their efforts are frustrated by that deplorable and
most invidious practice of under-cutting indulged
in by a few solicitors with a view to unfairly attracting
business.
Thousands of pounds are lost to the
profession every year in this way, and those solicitors
who are guilty of this practice should realise that
not only is touting for business in this manner an
offence with which they can be charged under the
professional practice regulations, but that they are
undermining the very foundations of the financial
stability of all their professional brethren.
If one
solicitor in a locality commences to under-cut, the
other solicitors in that locality are driven inevitably to
follow suit in order to protect their own business. The
result is a feeling of complete insecurity amongst all
the solicitors in that area, and it is bound to react on
the original solicitor himself who has set the vicious
circle in motion by resorting to this under-cutting.