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Lest there may be any doubt in the mind of any
person regarding the introduction of these regula–
tions let me make it quite clear here that the Solicitors
Act 1954 was initiated by the solicitors' profession,
and that Act gave power to the Council to .iiake
the Solicitors' Accounts Regulations. Legislation of
this kind is not an innovation ;
it has for several
years past been in force in many other countries.
These regulations were made, not as a reflection on
the profession itself but as a recognition by solicitors
of their special responsibility as custodians of the
very large amounts of clients' money which have
been paid to them in the ordinary course of business.
There are some further short remarks which I
wish to make about these regulations, but I propose
to leave them to a later period during this meeting.
TRUSTEE INVESTMENTS.
During the year the Council have considered
proposed new legislation and have submitted obser–
vations thereof to the Government, and in particular
amongst other legislation, the Council dealt with
the Trustee (Authorised Investments) Bill, 1957.
The Council considered that this Bill was a most
important enactment and they were in communi–
cation with the Department on a number of occasions
in the year 1957 and also more recently in 1958.
The Council submitted a number of amendments
dealing with various sections in the Bill, and particu–
larly with regard to Section 3. The Council felt that
Section 3 which deals with money under the control
or subject to the order of the Courts was too re–
strictive and the Council submitted that the Courts
should have wider powers and that it was manifestly
wrong to limit the jurisdiction of the Court in
directing the investments of funds under its control.
I am glad to say that the representations made by
this Society were successful and were very fairly met
by the Minister for Finance, and that in the Bill now
passed by the Dail the Courts have wide powers of
investment which extend beyond the ordinary trustee
investments in the acquisition, use or management
of any land or business or any share in any business.
The amendment protects a family business and
property which, had the Council suggestion not
been agreed to, would have had to be sold or other–
wise realised as the Bill then stood.
RETIREMENT BENEFITS AND
INCOME TAX.
During the past year the Council has been con–
sidering the question of retirement benefits for the
profession. You will have seen a memorandum on
this subject which was submitted to the Minister
for Finance. It was printed at page 36 of the Annual
Report for 1957. Shortly, the suggestion was that
professional men and self-employed persons should
be exempted from income tax on amounts set aside
by them out of current income for the provision of
pensions on retirement provided that the amounts
were so set aside in accordance with a scheme to be
approved by the Revenue Commissioners. Since
then the Council has sent a deputation to the Minister
for Finance, and this was a joint deputation composed
of representatives of our Society and representatives
of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. The
matter was fully discussed with the Minister.
To-day is the day of the Welfare State, and we are
living in times when the State, at enormous and
crippling cost, had decided to spoonfeed its citizens
from the cradle to the grave. There is scarcely a
scheme which one can think of from free medical
treatment
in hospitals built and equipped
at
enormous cost, to grants for building a fence that
are not available to every citizen of the State with
one glaring exception, and that is the self-employed
man. The members of the professions to-day and
I do not speak only of the legal profession are the
hardest hit of all. They are bedevilled like everybody
else by the rising cost of living, but unlike the
employed person they receive almost no assistance
of any kind from the State. While the State not only
expects, but insists, that he shall subscribe to in–
surance schemes for the benefit of others. And since
the end of the war perhaps the hardest hit of all
has been the solicitors' profession. A solicitor has
seen a steady rise in overhead expenses of every
kind rates, rent, wages, taxes, office requisites and
Court fees, and these have been so great as to make
it almost impossible for any member of our pro–
fession to put anything aside for retirement and
old age. Indeed, many of the younger members of
our profession are hard put to it to make enough
to live and many of them have to depend on the
generosity of their parents for many years. It must
be remembered that the professional man depends
for his livelihood only on himself. Unlike others,
when he is ill and unable to work, he is unable to
earn. If he has any savings, a short illness very
often absorbs them completely and most profes–
sional men, and by far the greatest number of them,
must look forward to their later years with the
greatest of anxiety. It is only common justice that
a self-employed man should be permitted to make
some provision for retirement from his earliest years.
In England and Northern Ireland tax remissions are
allowed on contributions paid by solicitors
to
schemes for retirement benefits. And these tax re–
missions being permitted, schemes have been set up
in those countries with the assistance of the insurance
companies whereby a contributor's pension depends