The Gazette 1980

JANUARY FEBRUARY 1980

GAZETTE

Mr. McCarronn and said that the implementation of the change would be given priority by the incoming Convey- ancing Committee. On the subject of Legal Costs, Mr. Houlihan commented on the absolute failure of the Society to achieve a satisfactory solution; it had been utterly frustrated by the Government agencies and Ministers involved on the other side. Mr. T. C. Gerard O'Mahony enquired if the Society could follow the example of other professional bodies and take strong action by disregarding statutory restrictions. He pressed that the matter be further discussed at a special general meeting at the end of January. In reply, the President said that he had found no support for strong action at the numerous meetings throughout the country which he had attended, and at which the problem of relating costs to increasing expenses and overheads had been discussed. He did not see the point of arranging for a further general meeting in the very near future. Bond Scheme At the request of the President, Miss Carmel Killeen drew the successful bonds as follows: £100 Prize Bonds Nos. 1095 and 1673 £500 Prize Bonds Nos. 1182 and 1205 £250 Prize Bonds Nos. 1716 and 1551 Annual General Meeting This was fixed for 11.30 a.m. on Friday, 21st November 1980. Motions The Director General informed the meeting that owing to a typographical error, which had only just come to notice, the words of the proposed amendment to Bye-Law 33 required alteration. With the consent of the seconder, Mrs. Moya Quinlan, and of the meeting, Mr. John Buckley withdrew a proposal to amend Bye-Law 33 for rephrasing and re-submission at a later meeting. Mr. John Buckley proposed and Mrs. M. Quinlan seconded a motion that Bye-Law 34 be amended as follows: "The Secretary shall also cause voting papers to be printed in Form D, for each province, containing the names and addresses of all candidates who shall be duly qualified and nominated in accordance with Bye-Law 30, for election as the provincial delegate for each province, arranged in alphabetical order, with the names of their respective nominators, and shall at least one week before the date of the poll or election in each year send one of such voting papers to each member of the Society practising in such province elsewhere than in the city of Dublin as regards the province of Leinster, who shall have paid his subscription for the current year, together with an envelope addressed to the Secretary, having the names of the province printed on the outside. Where only one candidate is validly nominated in respect of any province, the scrutineers of the ballot shall be empowered to return such candidate for election without the necessity of printing or issuing voting papers in respect thereof." After discussion, Mr. M. V. O'Mahony proposed and Mr. F. O'Donnell seconded that the proposal as

increases in jurisdiction of this magnitude are brought into effect, it would be the Society's view that the law should be altered, so as to provide that Family Law matters should be dealt with primarily at District Court level with appropriate rights of appeal. The same, in the Society's view, should apply to Criminal Injuries which are sometimes at present dealt with in the Circuit Court at excessive costs in relation to small cases. He said that in the Society's view, any decision by the Government to increase the jurisdiction of the lower Courts, in particular the District Court, coupled with a decision to give the District Court jurisdiction in relation to Family Law matters and/or Criminal Injuries, will make it absolutely essential that appropriate and adequate new scales of costs are immediately provided to come into effect at the same time as the increases in jurisdiction. Secondly, and at least of equal importance, it will be absolutely necessary that further Judges and Justices are appointed 'and adequate accommodation provided. Up to now, there has been a failure on the part of local authorities, mainly due to financial problems, to meet their obligations to provide adequate Court accommo- dation in many parts of the country. Commenting that it was very hard to understand why this should be so, in the context of good hospital, school and housing facilities, and in the Society's belief, neither the public nor the profession will tolerate much longer the present state of affairs in relation to Courthouse accommodation. In view of the necessity to provide more Judges at all levels, it is in the Society's view, highly desirable that solicitors who, at present, are statutorily excluded from judgeships of the High Court and the Supreme Court, should no longer be excluded and that a number of solicitors should be appointed in the first instance Judges of the Circuit Court to which they can at present be appointed, and at a later date, Judges of the High Court, and, if necessary, the Supreme Court. Mr. Hickey emphasised the role of the Society in training new solicitors to meet increasing demands and especially in giving them specialised training in advocacy. He hoped that over a period of years, the appointment of the number of solicitors as Judges of the Superior Courts would improve greatly the relationships between Judges, Bar and solicitors and make it possible for solicitors to appear more frequently in the Superior Courts without Counsel than they do now. In his view, such an extension of appearance by solicitors in the Superior Courts could only facilitate the speedy and inexpensive administration of justice in relation to many matters which now have to be dealt with at too high a cost from the public's point of view. Finally, he said that he would like to join the Presidents and Chairmen of other organisations in their condem- nation of the IBOA Executive for their complete dis- regard of the public interest. Speaking to the Report and in particular to the section dealing with the work of the Conveyancing Committee under the heading of Extension of Building Society Vacate System to other Mortgagees, Mr. Eunan McCarron, past President, repeated that the Society had been endeavouring for over nine years to get this simple reform introduced, and that successive governments had failed to implement the required change. The required change was simple but urgent. The President agreed with 4